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It’s now been eight months since we last saw UFC sensation Khamzat Chimaev in the octagon, and while he’s been linked to a number of fights in the future, nothing has been confirmed yet.
A recent interview with UFC president Dana White seemed to shed some light on the reason for Chimaev’s absence.
White claimed that ‘Borz’ has “personal stuff” going on right now, and suggested that the Chechnyan native’s absence was “on him”.
However, Khamzat Chimaev has since taken to Twitter to suggest that this may not be the case. In a cryptic post, ‘Borz’ seemed to suggest that the issue is not on his end after all.
“I have no problems with fights, if they gave me a fight, I would have fought a long time ago, I did so many training camps and not one fight, the problem is definitely not with me, prepared in dubai then to thailand, why do I train so much if there is no fight, I don’t understand.”
While Chimaev’s next fight has still not been announced, one rumour that won’t go away is the possibility of him facing former middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa.
Most recently, ‘Borrachinha’ claimed in an interview that he could fight Chimaev as soon as June, although the long-rumoured October date now seems more likely.
Khamzat Chimaev next fight: did ‘Borz’ really call out Francis Ngannou?
One bizarre piece of news doing the rounds recently was a report that Khamzat Chimaev had called out former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou for a fight.
As it was, though, Chimaev wasn’t challenging ‘The Predator’ to an MMA fight. Instead, he was calling out the former champion, who is currently a free agent, to a grappling match.
Given that Ngannou is nearly 100lbs heavier than Chimaev and isn’t renowned for his grappling, it’s unlikely that this match will happen any time soon.
It isn’t out of the ordinary for the UFC’s stars to perform in grappling matches, though.
In fact, Chimaev himself competed in a freestyle wrestling match against middleweight contender Jack Hermansson in 2021, defeating him via decision after two three-minute rounds.
Watch Chimaev wrestle against Hermansson below.
