Tag: Khamzat Chimaev

Khamzat Chimaev set for surgery amid hand injury, promises dominant UFC return: ‘Come back, smash somebody’

Khamzat Chimaev set to undergo hand surgery promises to smash somebody in UFC returnDespite initial optimism how undefeated middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev may avoid surgery to address a ligament injury in his…

Khamzat Chimaev set to undergo hand surgery promises to smash somebody in UFC return

Despite initial optimism how undefeated middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev may avoid surgery to address a ligament injury in his hand following his decision win over former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 back in October, the Chechen-born contender is slated to go under the knife in the coming weeks.

Chimaev, the current number eight ranked middleweight contender, co-headlined UFC 294 earlier this year in Abu Dhabi, UAE, landing a close, majority decision win over former pound-for-pound number one, Usman over the course of three rounds.

And revealing how he had suffered an injury to his hand during the opening round of his close back-and-forth with Auchi native, Usman at UFC 294, Khamzat Chimaev’s manager revealed his client would wear a supportive brace on his hand in the aftermath, however, would likely escape a surgical procedure to address the injury.

Khamzat Chimaev confirms surgery to address hand injury

Two months on, however, Chimaev himself has confirmed he is set to go under the knife in two weeks time to address his hand injury. And as usual, has predicted a dominant showcase in his return to the Octagon.

“I’m gonna do a surgery, operation, in one-two weeks,” Khamzat Chimaev said during an Instagram Live session. “After that, do the recovery, come back, smash somebody.” 

Missing out on an immediate title fight with the incumbent Sean Strickland, who fights Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 in January, Chimaev should be nowhere near a championship clash according to the Clovis native.

“(Khamzat) Chimaev, he doesn’t f*cking deserve it,” Sean Strickland said. “We all know that. The only reason why Chimaev gets that shot is because he sells a lot of tickets. That’s it. At the end of the day, man. I’m happy with Dricus (du Plessis). It’s gonna be a hell of a fight, and I’m just happy the UFC is doing the right thing.”

“He’s next in line, he f*cking deserves it,” Sean Strickland explained. “They’ve been doing a lot of f*ckery lately with rankings and bullsh*t. Just f*cking wrong, man. We need to go back to a professional sport where rankings matter because as of now, rankings mean f*ck-all sh*t.” 

Chimaev recently also received an interesting offer to make a light heavyweight debut in his return to the UFC, by former titleholder, Jiri Prochazka, who urged him to make another divisional leap.

Who would you like to see Khamzat Chimaev fight in his UFC return?

Paulo Costa calls for title fight eliminator with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 297: ‘Give me the Chechen for dinner’

Paulo Costa calls for title eliminator with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 287 give me the Chechen for dinnerOne-time middleweight title challenger, Paulo Costa has once more called for a rescheduled fight with the undefeated, Khamzat Chimaev…

Paulo Costa calls for title eliminator with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 287 give me the Chechen for dinner

One-time middleweight title challenger, Paulo Costa has once more called for a rescheduled fight with the undefeated, Khamzat Chimaev following their cancelled pairing at UFC 294 back in October, suggesting the duo should share the Octagon in January. 

Costa, the current number six ranked middleweight contender, was slated to feature in the co-main event of UFC 294 back in October against the surging, Chimaev, until a bursitis infection in his elbow forced his withdrawal from the bout on just 10 days’ notice in the Middle East.

Debuting at number nine in the official middleweight rankings off the back of his feature at the flagship event, Chimaev turned in a close, majority decision win over former titleholder, Kamaru Usman – with the latter making a short-notice move to the middleweight ranks.

Paulo Costa eyes title eliminator with Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 297

And tonight, the promotion have confirmed how a middleweight title fight between champion, Sean Strickland, and challenger, Dricus du Plessis is set to headline UFC 297 on January 20. in Toronto, Canada – leading to a definite call out from Costa to face Chimaev in the same month.

“Give me [the] Chechen for dinner in January with some secret juice,” Paulo Costa posted on his official X account. “There’s no reason to protect him from me, force him to sign it again, otherwise he gonna still ducking. Let’s go mtfk!”

Himself sidelined from the promotion since August of last year, Belo Horizonte native, Costa most recently snapped a two-fight losing run to former champion, Israel Adesanya, and Marvin Vettori – landing a unanimous decision win over former UFC middleweight champion, Luke Rockhold in Salt Lake City. 

Once fighting for undisputed middleweight gold during his Octagon tenure, Costa suffered a second round knockout loss to City Kickboxing staple, Adesanya back in September 2020 in the main event of UFC 253 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Who wins in a future fight: Paulo Costa or Khamzat Chimaev? 

Coach confirms Sean Strickland turned down UFC 294 title fight with Khamzat Chimaev: ‘It didn’t make any sense’

Sean Strickland made no sense fighting Khamzat Chimaev in title fight at UFC 294Undisputed middleweight champion, Sean Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick has confirmed how his student and team did, in fact,…

Sean Strickland made no sense fighting Khamzat Chimaev in title fight at UFC 294

Undisputed middleweight champion, Sean Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick has confirmed how his student and team did, in fact, reject an offer on just over a weeks’ notice to defend the crown at UFC 294 last month against the unbeaten, Khamzat Chiamev – citing how a quick turnaround made little sense. 

Strickland, the current undisputed middleweight champion, most recently turned in a shocking upset win over former two-time divisional titleholder, Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 back in September in Sydney, Australia – landing a hugely one-sided unanimous decision win over the City Kickboxing staple over the course of five rounds.

And ahead of UFC 294 last month, following the withdrawal of Paulo Costa from a fight with Chimaev, and prior to the short-notice insertion of former welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman into the bout, reports surfacing claiming Strickland had rejected a short-notice title defense against the Chechnya native.

Sean Strickland rejected short-notice title fight with Khamzat Chimaev

Confirming those reports earlier this week, Sean Strickland’s coach, Nicksick detailed that while his student had no issue fighting on such short notice, a quickfire turnaround against Chimaev made no sense, having previously drafted in to fight Adesanya on less than six weeks notice ‘Down Under’.

“From my understanding, they [the UFC] did [offer Sean Strickland a title fight with Khamzat Chimaev],” Eric Nicksick told ESPN. “They just threw it out there to see if he would be available. When Sean had asked me, to be honest, I was the one that kind of said no. I was like, bro, I can’t be there – like we can go out there, but it didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever as a champion to take a short notice fight against a killer.”

“Sean can fight anybody on any day’s notice, we know that he has done it in the past,” Nicksick explained. “But, why is it our responsibility to go put our title on the line on short notice when we already did them [the UFC] a solid by fighting Izzy (Israel Adesanya) on five-and-a-half weeks’ notice?”

Fearing he had suffered a fractured hand in the immediate aftermath of his eventual decision win over Usman, Chimaev is set to avoid a surgical procedure, with his manager confirming how the undefeated challenger has instead suffered a ligament tear in his hand, and will wear a supportive brace for a period of time. 

Do you expect to see Sean Strickland fight Khamzat Chimaev next year for the title?

Jorge Masvidal Believes Khazmat Chimaev is in for a rude awakening at middleweight: ‘They’ll hurt him’

Khamzat ChimaevJorge Masvidal believes Khamzat Chimaev is playing with fire in the middleweight division. ‘Borz’ stormed into the UFC in…

Khamzat Chimaev

Jorge Masvidal believes Khamzat Chimaev is playing with fire in the middleweight division.

‘Borz’ stormed into the UFC in 2020 and rattled off three-straight victories in the span of eight weeks. Largely competing in the welterweight division, Chimaev has repeatedly ragdolled opponents with Gilbert Burns being the one glaring exception. Even then, ‘Borz’ came out on top via unanimous decision, keeping his undefeated record intact and establishing himself as a legit title contender inside the Octagon.

However, things went way off course ahead of his previously scheduled main event matchup with veteran fan favorite Nate Diaz when Chimaev stepped on the scale eight-pounds over the limit for their welterweight scrap. The blunder ultimately led to the UFC forcing Chimaev to make the move to middleweight.

Thus far, Chimaev has maintained his status as a legitimate title contender after securing a decision victory over former welterweight world champion Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, though the bout did come with a bit of adversity and a pinch of controversy. Not to mention the fact that the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ stepped into the bout on less than two weeks’ notice.

Sharing his take on Khazmat Chimaev’s move to middleweight, former welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal suggested that the Chechen will find a lot more dangerous men to contend with than he would at welterweight.

“You put him in there with a lot of these [middleweights] I think they’ll f*cking hurt him,” Masvidal said in an interview with MMA Mania.

‘Gamebred’ bumped into Kamaru Usman at a nightclub hours before he stepped up to fight khamzat chimaev

Despite moving up a weight class on short notice, Kamaru Usman looked undeniably impressive in his showing against Khamzat Chimaev, even winning the bout in the eyes of many.

As it turns out, Usman was out clubbing mere hours before the announcement was made that he would be stepping into the UFC 294 co-main event, leaving many to wonder how things may have played out had Usman been given a full fight camp to prepare.

“Funny story, right before he took that fight, hasn’t happened too often, but I saw Kamaru Usman out. It was the craziest stuff ever,” Masvidal said. “I was walking into this establishment, I had my shades on and somebody goes, ‘Jorge Masvidal, what’s up?’ I go, ‘Man, that voice sounds f*cking familiar.’ I turned around, this is at 4:30 in the f*cking morning, bro. It’s Usman’s ass and he’s got glasses too. What the f*ck?

“I look, I must have lost my f*cking mind,” he continues. “I lift them (my glasses) up and I go, ‘Usman?!’ and he goes, ‘What’s up, Masvidal?!’ This motherf*cker, bro. That was literally the day before he got the announcement for the fight. So I just want to say if that guy has like five-six weeks to prepare for Chimaev, he takes him out. Guaranteed. He knocks his a** dead.”

Khamzat Chimaev tipped to struggle in UFC title fight with Sean Strickland: ‘He loses every day of the week’

Khamzat Chimaev tipped to struggle with Sean Strickland he loses every day of the weekExpected to challenge for undisputed middleweight gold in his return to the Octagon following a title-eliminator win at UFC…

Khamzat Chimaev tipped to struggle with Sean Strickland he loses every day of the week

Expected to challenge for undisputed middleweight gold in his return to the Octagon following a title-eliminator win at UFC 294 earlier this month, the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev has been backed to likely fall short in his challenge against champion, Sean Strickland, by the surging, Dricus du Plessis. 

Chimaev, who debuted at number nine in the official middleweight pile off the back of his return to the division earlier this month, landed a close, majority decision win over former undisputed welterweight champion and pound-for-pound number one, Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 back in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Khamzat Chimaev tipped to fall short in title fight with Sean Strickland

And expected to challenge for undisputed gold against Strickland in his return to the Octagon as he continues to recover from a hand ligament tear suffered in his win over Usman, Khamzat Chimaev has been tipped to struggle any time he fights Strickland, according to South African contender, du Plessis.

“When you look at this, I have one or two options,” Dricus du Plessis told Sherdog during a recent interview. “The first thing I can say is a little bit of a jab is Khamzat’s (Chimaev) hand is broken, right? So, he should be ready to fight in seven weeks or he forfeits his title shot because that’s what happened to me. I wasn’t ready to fight in seven weeks with a broken foot.”

“If you want to give Khamzat the title shot, go right ahead?” du Plessis explained. “Because the Khamzat that fought this weekend loses to Sean Strickland every day of the week.” 

Himself sidelined since he featured on the main card of UFC 290 during International Fight Week back in July, du Plessis turned in a title-eliminator win over former titleholder, Robert Whittaker in a stunning second round TKO win.

Expected to fight former champion, Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 back in September, du Plessis was forced from the championship clash due to a lingering injury. 

Who wins in a future title fight: Sean Strickland or Khamzat Chimaev?

Report – Khamzat Chimaev set to avoid surgery after UFC 294, suffers ligament tear rather than fractured hand

Khamzat Chimaev set to avoid surgery after UFC 294 suffers ligament tearDespite initial claims that he suffered a fractured hand during the first round of his UFC 294 return earlier…

Khamzat Chimaev set to avoid surgery after UFC 294 suffers ligament tear

Despite initial claims that he suffered a fractured hand during the first round of his UFC 294 return earlier this month, undefeated middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev is set to avoid a surgical procedure, with developments confirming the Chechen suffered a ligament injury, rather than a fracture.

Chimaev, who earned his thirteenth straight professional victory earlier this month, landed a close, majority decision win over former undisputed welterweight champion and former pound-for-pound number one, Kamaru Usman in a short-notice middleweight clash in the co-main event of UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

However, in the immediate aftermath of his victory over the Auchi native, Khamzat Chimaev revealed that he suffered what he believed to be a fractured hand in the opening round of his fight with Usman – leading many to suggest the newly-minted number nine ranked middleweight was set for an extended period on the sidelines.

Khamzat Chimaev expected to skirt surgery after UFC 294 win

And despite initial worry, Chimaev’s manager has confirmed during a recent interview with ESPN, how the former will likely avoid a surgical procedure to address a ligament tear rather than a hand fracture – and will instead sport a brace on his hand for a period of four weeks. 

Expected to challenge for an undisputed middleweight title next against incumbent gold holder, Sean Strickland, Chimaev – who fired shots at the newly-minted champion, had his status as immediate title challenger, challenged. 

“The only thing I like about (Khamzat) Chimaev is that he sells fights,” Sean Strickland said. “For some reason, people f*cking like him or don’t like him, I don’t know. To me, he’s a f*cking paycheck. He sells a lot of fights. People pay to watch but he f*cking hasn’t earned it [title fight].”

“He doesn’t f*cking deserve it but here we are,” Sean Strickland explained. “Give it to him. He sells a lot of fights. I’ll go f*cking fight the man for five rounds. But no, he has not earned it. He doesn’t f*cking deserve it and getting a deciison with a welterweight off the couch does not f*cking earn it.” 

Who do you want to see Khamzat Chimaev fight in his return to the UFC?