Khamzat Chimaev’s seemingly innocent endorsement of a meme-themed crypto coin landed him in hot water with fight fans after it appeared he had defrauded them.
In early July, Chimaev shared a video on X promoting SMASH coin, a cryptocurrency named after the undefeated UFC superstar. Considering how many athletes, influencers, and celebrities have taken to promoting crypto in recent years, it was by no means surprising.
However, it quickly became clear that something wasn’t right.
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT discovered that 78% of the SMASH coin supply had been purchased by insiders. Within 24 hours, the value had dropped a whopping 96% leaving early adopters with nothing, but a whole lot of frustration.
Khamzat Chimaev places blame on his management team
As the controversy brewed, Chimaev deleted everything that tied him to the meme-coin, but it wasn’t until a recent interview with Aslanbek Badaev that he actually addressed the accusations head-on, placing the blame on his manager for simply trusting the wrong people.
“Well, my manager… you can say acted stupidly and I also made a mistake in this crypto. I don’t understand [crypto] at all, I trust my manager. You could say I asked people if I could trust them, my people said I can trust them. Make this video, like any other athlete, probably doesn’t know what crypto is and how it works. I don’t know for sure. I don’t even have time to look at what it is.
“I made a video and then made an advertisement as they told me and that they will send me money. Well, these people are also lost now. We are looking for them. One was found. They forced him to make a video [explaining] that it’s their fault. We will find the others too and we’ll make them apologize for it.“
Chimaev’s manager, Majdi Shammas, had already taken responsibility for putting his fighter’s name on the cryptocurrency scam and made it clear that ‘Borz’ was in no way involved in any attempt to commit fraud.
Khamzat Chimaev was scheduled to headline UFC Saudi Arabia in June, but the 14-0 fighter was forced to bow out after becoming “violently ill” due to an undisclosed illness. ‘Borz’ is already making plans to return at UFC 308 in October when the promotion makes its annual pit stop in Abu Dhabi, though no official announcements have been made.
