Khamzat Chimaev faces the Brazilian Gilbert Burns, this April 10, 2022 in Jacksonville (Southeastern United States), at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the number one mixed martial arts (MMA) league. If successful at UFC 273, the Swede of Chechen origin will not be far from a title fight at welterweight, he who aims for the belts held by the Nigerians Kamaru Usman (welterweight) and Israel Adesanya (middleweight). Focus on the new phenomenon of MMA.
In sports, statistics don’t always tell the whole story. But they rarely lie. Those of Khamzat Chimaev, a new phenomenon in mixed martial arts (mma), are uplifting. In ten professional MMA fights, the Swede won ten times, with ten finishes, without ever going beyond the second round. Undefeated among amateurs (3-0) or in freestyle wrestling (24-0), the 27-year-old athlete also seems untouchable.
Only the Covid knocked him out
In four matches at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the “Combat Sports Champions League”, Khamzat Chimaev thus administered 254 blows to his opponents and received… 2. And again: these two strikes were not not really significant…
Nothing to do with the right hook which allowed him to extinguish the experienced American Gerald Meerschaert in 17 seconds, in September 2020, after two first successes in the UFC sent in ten days in July 2020.
Khamzat Chimaev’s sensational UFC debut
Khamzat Chimaev then seemed set to crush everything in his path. The UFC thus offered him a fight against the Briton Leon Edwards, one of the most formidable fighters at the welterweight (welter). But in December 2020, the native of Beno-Yurt, Chechnya, contracted Covid-19. The new Coronavirus plunged the budding superstar into such a state of physical distress that he announced his retirement from sport in March 2021. The one nicknamed “Borz” (the “wolf”) must undergo special treatment to recover .
He speaks with the UFC boss while carrying his opponent
Many wonder: is the comet disintegrating? The answer, October 30, 2021, is scathing. For his return to the octagon after a year’s absence, Khamzat Chimaev is opposed to Li Jingliang, then ranked 11and global. A real test this time. Results ? After 4 seconds the Chinese gets grabbed and after 3 minutes he is submitted with a rear choke. Between these two moments? The Swede walks around the cage with Li Jingliang in his arms like carrying a package, while shouting at Dana White, the boss of the UFC, present at the edge of the field: “ I will fight everyone! I don’t care who it is! »
When Khamzat Chimaev challenges the boss of the UFC in the middle of a fight
Since then, the craze about the “Wolf” has not been denied. And the UFC struggled to find him a new opponent. It will therefore be the number 2 in the category, Gilbert Burns, this April 10, 2022 in Jacksonville (South-East of the United States). A new stage: the Brazilian is one of the few to have put the Nigerian Kamaru Usmanking of the welterweights, in difficulty.
Nigerians Usman and Adesanya, his two targets
If successful at UFC 273, Khamzat Chimaev will not be far from a title fight at welterweight. However, the interested party sees further. The middleweight belt – the weight class above – is also his target. He never misses an opportunity to provoke the compatriot of Usman, Israel Adesanyamiddleweight champion, who reciprocates, mocking his deformed lip from falling down stairs when he was 2 years old.
Ultra-confident in his abilities, Khamzat Chimaev challenges everyone, all the time, on social networks or at a press conference, to Irishman Conor McGregor Canadian George Saint-Pierre. Well aware of his potential, Chechen President Ramzat Kadyrov quickly made him one of his proteges. Many see in Khamzat the new terror coming from the Caucasus, after the retirement of Khabib Nurmagomedov. The Russian ended his career in October 2020 after 29 wins and 0 losses. An unbeatable record? Chimaev no longer seems like a crazy stat near…