Team Khamzat Chimaev Breaks Silence on Retirement – “Not True”

Khamzat Chimaev’s manager has confirmed that ‘Borz’ has no intentions of retiring amid rumors of his retirement. Chimaev is in the hospital battling a ‘violent illness’. He was scheduled to face former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC’s first Saudi Arabia card on June 22.

However, ‘Borz’ had to pull out a few days ago, as he was admitted to the hospital. His manager, Majdi Shammas has claimed it was because of a case of food poisoning that only got worse over time. Since then, there have been rumors that the Chechen was looking to hang up his gloves due to health issues. This was the second time in six months he had fallen seriously ill.

However, his manager has rubbished these speculations in a recent interview. “It’s absolutely not true. We’re planning on getting to the bottom of this situation, the problems. He will be back,” Shammas told MMA Junkie.

Chimaev has been replaced with Dagestani middleweight prospect Ikram Aliskerov, who will make his third UFC appearance on June 22 and is unranked. But that will change swiftly if the Dagestani defeats the legendary #3-ranked Whittaker.

Meanwhile, as per Shammas, ‘Borz’ will soon be back in action, after he heals up from his illness.

Khamzat Chimaev’s history of illnesses

In January this year, Chimaev had turned down a title bout shot against then-champion Sean Strickland at UFC 297. While initially it was believed this was because of an injury he had sustained in his UFC 294 bout against Kamaru Usman, it turned out things were more serious than that.

Pictures of ‘Borz’ looking remarkably ill, with red spots all over his body and bloodshot eyes surfaced. The cause of this ‘mystery illness’ is still unknown. Chimaev had also contracted Covid-19 during the height of the pandemic in 2021. The virus had caused his welterweight bout against Leon Edwards to be rescheduled twice before it fell through.

Chimaev was one of the most active fighters in the promotion when he joined the UFC back in 2020, fighting and spectacularly defeating two opponents in July that year alone. Since his Covid diagnosis, however, his activity levels have fallen significantly with the Chechen not fighting more than once a year in the past few years.

Because of this extensive rap sheet of serious illnesses, and the drop in his activity levels, there were speculations that the Emirati might be looking to retire. But that, according to his manager, is not the case.