Whe popularity of Khamzat Chimaev is evident tonight, especially before the fights. When ring announcer Bruce Buffer announced another Russian a few hours before Chimaev’s performance at “UFC 273”, loud boos echoed through the sold-out arena.
Here in Jacksonville, Florida, too, there seems to be opposition to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Expressed in a rare moment of politicization in a sport that is otherwise strongly defined by the fact that all politics and identity are left out. Not so with Chimaev. He is celebrated like a superstar.
Maybe that’s because the native Chechen, nicknamed “Borz” – wolf – now lives and trains in Sweden. Above all, however, because it offers spectacular entertainment – inside and outside the Octagon. The 27-year-old is unbeaten in ten fights when he enters the hall in Florida, he has defeated every one of his opponents by knockout or submission, the last four in the UFC, the premier class of MMA sports.
Definitely relaxed – Khamzat Chimaev waits for his opponent at UFC 273 while sitting on the octagon
Source: Florian Sädler
He knocked one out with a single punch after 17 seconds, wrestled the others to the ground and overpowered them there within minutes. Over the course of his career, Chimaev landed 252 punches against his opponents – and was only hit twice himself. Nothing comparable has happened at this level in recent years. What he does inside the Octagon, he sells outside in interviews with gritty humor and unwavering confidence. In both, he is reminiscent of the early Conor McGregor, the biggest star of the sport – even if it has meanwhile gotten into murky waters due to various scandals.
Tonight Chimaev should make the breakthrough. Opposite him is Gilbert Burns, a former title challenger who is eight years older and has two and a half times as many fights under his belt as Chimaev. Burns is the first truly world-class opponent that Chimaev has in front of his fists. A win should silence critics who claim that “Borz” has so far only worked on inferior opponents.
During the break in a round, a trainer yells at him in horror
That ends tonight. The fight begins, and Burns and Chimaev set off fireworks. There is no sign of Chimaev’s usual dominance, the two serve each other. Momentum swings back and forth.
In one of the breaks in the round, Chimaev’s trainer yelled in his face that he should kindly stop the wild beating. With a cool head and superior technique, he could easily defeat Burns. The coach is probably right. Alone: Chimaev does not listen. Except for a few sequences, he delivers a material battle. And still wins. All three judges give him the win.
For his – still quite new – employer, Chimaev’s promotion comes at the right time. Two of the UFC’s biggest stars, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, have retired or are at a career low with injuries. Needing more supplies, the confident 27-year-old could be the next star to transcend the sport’s fan base.
The unprecedented one-sidedness of his stats is gone after the Burns fight; in return, Chimaev proved that he has a fighting heart. And that’s worth more than impressive numbers in the long run. Because in this sport it gets uncomfortable for everyone at some point. Especially since he still passed his first really serious test – he won the fight. In the official welterweight rankings, he jumped from eleventh to third after his win.
Chimaev during his three-round match against Brazilian Gilbert Burns. Chimaev has enjoyed an unprecedented rise in the UFC
Source: AFP/James Gilbert
Next, Chimaev is likely to face Colby Covington, commonly considered the second-best welterweight on the UFC roster. If he beats him too, Chimaev will then fight for the title in the 77-kilo class. Chimaev only made his debut in the UFC in the summer of 2020. It would have been a rapid rise if he hadn’t lost one of his two years as a UFC fighter to the consequences of a severe corona infection.
He told his manager on the phone that he was going to die
Meanwhile, it looked like the virus would end Chimaev’s career before it really got started. He started his UFC career with two fights in ten days – a record – after the infection he could not even train for months. Chimaev was hospitalized several times.
Drawn for the first time: Khamzat Chimaev after his hard-fought win over Gilbert Burns
Source: Florian Sädler/WORLD
In one instance, he attempted to return to training too soon. He had to break off the session, after which he was no longer able to climb the stairs to his hotel room on his own. His manager reported in an interview that Chimaev called him once during this period and said he was going to die.
Ramzan Kadyrov, of all people, kept him from resigning. At least that’s what the Chechen dictator himself claims. After Chimaev, very frustrated, posted an Instagram post saying goodbye to sport, Kadyrov claims to have picked up the phone and changed his mind.
Whether this episode actually happened or not, the relationship between the two existed before Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, in which Putin, to the media’s attention, also used Kadyrov’s Chechen soldiers. And it’s been controversial for just as long. Kadyrov apparently gave Chimaev a Mercedes as a gift some time ago – which the fighter is said to have crashed a little later. Chimaev fled from the Russian republic to Sweden as an 18-year-old, lived on almost nothing in Stockholm at first, slept in the gym that later made him a top fighter.
Nevertheless, he seems to get along well with the man who maintains brutal order for Putin in the Caucasus region, which has long been torn apart by war. Among other things, Kadyrov is known for taking extremely tough action against political opponents, and homosexuals are also mercilessly persecuted in Chechnya. Sooner or later this could become a PR problem for the UFC.
On the other hand, fans have rarely noticed that they care in large numbers about political backgrounds. Unpopular, if any, were fighters like former football pro Greg Hardy, who was accused of seriously injuring his ex-girlfriend. Such cases are obviously more tangible, easier to imagine than abstract connections to the ruler of a distant region somewhere in the Caucasus. Especially since Chimaev has so far hardly spoken publicly about Kadyrov.
On the other hand, everything that “Borz” has shown so far suggests that the UFC has its next big star on the line with him. If things go really well, maybe even on a level that can be compared to Conor McGregor. Above all, the league should now hope that Chimaev, unlike the Irishman, will keep a clean sheet outside the octagon.
