Khamzat Chimaev had the entire world worried when he got “violently ill” right before his slated fight against Robert Whittaker. It was later revealed that the Chechen Wolf trained himself a bit too hard and didn’t give his body ample time to recover. But Chimaev is done with his old practices. Now, he has reflected on his mistakes and has taken steps to avoid any further pull-outs.

Not too long ago, Chimaev had a heartfelt reunion with his first-ever wrestling coach. Needless to say, even the middleweight contender’s coach was happy with the updates. But does that mean ‘Borz’ has opted to get a new coach?

Khamzat Chimaev has ensured his appearance against Robert Whittaker with a new strategy

On September 18th, Red Corner MMA released a video on Instagram that showed Chimaev having a brief talk with his first wrestling coach. The world of mixed martial arts breathed a sigh of relief when ‘Borz’ revealed that he had been giving his body enough time to rest and recover. It was indeed a move toward an upgrade, as he previously trained himself until he was completely drained.

Chimaev’s coach pointed out that he used to train until he got exhausted, and the Chechen Wolf agreed. He continued, “Yes, but then I ended up in hospital like the last time when I was in hospital. Three times in a row within three weeks. My immune system went down, I got sick. Now I use a better approach. I work with good coaches. Salim [Noutsalkhanov] raised a lot of world champions. He also trained Buvaisar Satiev for the Beijing Olympics. With people like that, I am going to take a big step forward.”

Earlier, in an interview with Submission Radio, one of Chimaev’s teammates, Caio Borralho, revealed that he trains a lot. That was the only reason why he “kills his body and doesn’t make it to the fight.” Borralho reflected back to the time when ‘Borz’ went through a 5-round spar and jumped straight into a session on pads right after. No wonder his body couldn’t cope with the intensity.

Pulling out of a much-anticipated fight greatly disappointed the world of mixed martial arts. But those on Chimaev’s team witnessed not just his strengths but also the reason that put the Swedish fighter in the hospital. Let’s see what his teammate had to say about his health.

The real reason behind ‘Borz’s frequent health issues

One of Chimaev’s teammates backed him up as fight fans took up arms against him for abandoning his fight at UFC Riyadh. Speaking via CryptoSportsBetting, Alexander Gustafsson revealed the real reason behind the Swedish middleweight fighter’s frequent health problems, and the blame lay entirely on hard training. 

Gustafsson said, “The guy gets ill. There is something with his body that reacts to hard training, because he is the hardest worker in the room… He very easily catches a cold, for example – a runny nose, coughing, symptoms that are not a big deal at all, we all get that. But I’ve seen when he increases his training a lot, I know his body reacts differently to the training. I don’t know where it comes from. It’s crazy how he reacts to the training these days.”

But now that he has changed the way he trains, the fighting community can expect the middleweight #12 to entertain the world with a newfound freshness in his performance. After all, even ‘The Reaper’ believed that Chimaev was quite an attraction and was pretty excited to fight him. The only question that remains to be answered is who will rise victorious at UFC 308.

What are your thoughts on Chimaev’s new training regime? Do you agree that rest is as important as training hard? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.