The past nine months have been rough on Khamzat Chimaev. Since his questionable majority decision victory over Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, ‘Borz’ has rapidly gone from seemingly the most hyped prospect in UFC history to being called an over-hyped and over-rated fighter by many fans. And his reputation may suffer another blow if the rumors about his next fight are true.

The Chechen is scheduled to face former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker on the main event of UFC’s first-ever card in Saudi Arabia. However, according to reports from the outlet ‘Blackbeltmma’, the bout may be off as Chimaev has allegedly withdrawn from the bout, even as the reason behind it remains as of yet unknown.

Despite reservations about the result of his Usman bout (which a section of fans feel should have been a tie or gone the other way), Chimaev did officially win the bout. Because their Abu Dhabi fight was a title eliminator for the middleweight title, Chimaev became the official number one title contender. He was then offered a shot at then-champion Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in Canada three months later.

However, Chimaev turned it down, claiming he was recovering from an injury he had sustained during the Usman fight. In addition, he had to pull out twice from a bout against Leon Edwards in 2021 as ‘Borz’ was suffering from the lingering effects of Covid. And now, he has pulled out of the historic Whittaker bout, which predictably hasn’t gone down well with the fans.

Fans react to Khamzat Chimaev pulling out of Whittaker bout

In the comments section of the Instagram post, fans let their disappointment with Chimaev clear. One fan found this the last nail in the coffin, and declared that “I am no longer a Khamzat fan.” Another fan felt that the undefeated middleweight had been “All talk 0 fight since his Usman fight.” Another asserted that Whittaker’s well-rounded striking and grappling being a bad matchup for him is why Chimaev chose to pull out: “Bad matchup for the guy so he backed out smh the Usman fight made him lose confidence.”

Another fan felt that Chimaev’s popularity would be dented even more because of this cancellation “Khamzat lost all his hype now.” One fan was inconsolable as he was already reeling from Conor McGregor seemingly being out of his next fight: “Bro first Conor now this sh** 😭” Another referenced the almost-confirmed McGregor pull-out and joked that Michael Chandler should face Robert Whittaker at UFC 303 instead: “Whittaker vs Chandler at 303.” Another fan was fed up with Chimaev and Paulo Costa pulling out of their fights, and simply declared: “Him and Paulo suck.”

What are your thoughts on these rumors? Let us know in the comments.