Khamzat Chimaev is en route to infamy. The Chechen became perhaps the most hyped fighter in all of UFC history with his white-hot performances in the promotion between 2020 and ’21. Since then, however, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. From being one of the fans’ darlings, Chimaev is now facing fans’ wrath, many of whom have already put him in the dreaded over-hyped basket.

His last fight with Kamaru Usman, where he eked out a controversial majority decision win, followed by his seemingly unending bevy of health issues, which caused him to turn down or pull out of multiple fights have been the biggest factors in his dramatic turn of fortune. But, the beginning of the (purported) end for Chimaev, one may think, started in his UFC 273 clash with Gilbert Burns, which Chimaev is still not over.

Khamzat Chimaev still has regrets about the Gilbert Burns fight

Gilbert Burns, coming into his April 2022 clash with Khamzat Chimaev, was the underdog and for good reason. Up to that point, the Emirati citizen had been nothing short of an unstoppable juggernaut, having stopped all four of his previous UFC opponents in the first or second round.

“Well yes I have such a guy [whom I want to rematch]. Gilbert Burns and I had a difficult fight, so to speak, because I wanted to drop the guy and stop him ahead of schedule, I was chasing this knockout and it didn’t work. Well, I did everything on emotions, I would like to try again and finish it. Well, with a cool head,  fight him,” Chimaev said in his native Russian at the Caucasus Investment Forum in Grozny, Chechnya.

Burns, with his legendary durability and power seemed determined to change this and spring a surprise on the UFC world, which he nearly did. In the fateful three rounds with Burns, Chimaev would be hurt, bloodied, rocked, and knocked down for the first time in his MMA career. Even as ‘Borz’ did enough to win a unanimous decision, ‘Durinho’ would show exactly why he remains one of the scariest 175-pounders in the world.

Chimaev, in a recent talk, admitted that he wants to run back his fight with Burns. ‘Borz’ felt that he got emotional during the fight, and got involved in a firefight with the Brazilian, contrary to his team’s game plan.

His emotions, ‘Borz’ felt, made him tired, which he felt led to the fight being as close as it was, and his relatively sub-par performance. The Chechen, however, wanted to rematch Burns, determined to fight him with a ‘cool head’ this time around. And it will not be sooner than October this year, at least.

‘Borz’ floats a possible October return

Khamzat Chimaev is healthy again. Last month, he was scheduled to face former 185-pound champ Robert Whittaker on the UFC’s first-ever fight card in Saudi Arabia. However, for the second time in the same year, he got ill (or rather, ‘violently ill’ as UFC CEO Dana White put it) and had to pull out less than two weeks from the historic bout.

After his injury however, he seems to have re-evaluated his priorities and has called on the UFC to give him a shot at the middleweight title straightaway. In a recent interview with ‘MMA Junkie’, ‘Borz’ claimed that he will probably fight next at the UFC’s annual Abu Dhabi card in October, on UFC 308, and felt his past performances warranted it to be for the title.

Indeed, the Emirati citizen does have a case for a title shot. After all, he was the official #1 title contender for the title following his UFC 294 win over Kamaru Usman. However, Chimaev, in what would become a familiar theme going forward, turned down a title shot in January 2024, as he was having health issues. And now he wants to pick up right where he left off, but a lot has changed since then in the 185-pound division. Do you agree with Chimaev that he should fight for the title next?