Khamzat Chimaev is gearing up to go one-on-one against former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in what is truly going to be a high-intensity spectacle at UFC 308. The co-main event fight in Abu Dhabi will finally be taking place after it was canceled due to Chimaev’s illness. However, this time around, he is all prepared to continue his winning streak.

Coming off a win against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, ‘Borz’ was recently seen sparring against Olympic gold medalist Razambek Zhamalov. So it surely seems like he wants to be at his very best against arguably his toughest challenge to date. But seeing that he could go one-on-one against an Olympic gold medalist will make many wonder how good Khamzat Chimaev’s own wrestling skills are and what martial arts styles he is a master in. Well, let’s find it all out.

Is Khamzat Chimaev a BJJ black belt?

Khamzat Chimaev has been honing his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills under the tutelage of his BJJ instructor Alan ‘Finfou’ Nascimento. Right after his win against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294, his trainer decided to promote the Russian to a brown belt in BJJ. Holding a brown belt is an impressive feat. It signifies that ‘Borz’ has truly mastered advanced skills and maneuvers with about six to eight years of dedicated training. This was displayed in his fight against Usman, where his ground fighting and grappling techniques helped him get a unanimous victory against the black belt.

It truly was a proud moment for Khamzat Chimaev when he got promoted. In the post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier, he even revealed that this belt truly meant a lot to him. He said, “This means so much to me.” With such mastery of moves, ‘Borz’ truly has made a great name for himself in the MMA world. However, BJJ isn’t the only martial art that has helped him rise to the ranks. And guess why he can implement his BJJ so well? Because of his strong wrestling base!

All we know about Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling career

Khamzat Chimaev started training as a wrestler at the age of 5. This was a result of him growing up in Chechnya, a region known for its strong wrestling culture. So this early headstart surely provided him with a strong base that helped him win a bronze medal at the Russian National Championships in the junior category. However, that wasn’t enough for ‘Borz,’ as he then decided to move to Sweden to hone his skills further.

Quickly rising in the ranks of freestyle wrestling, ‘Borz’ started dominating the Swedish circuit by winning the Swedish Freestyle National Championship in the 86 kg category in 2016 and 2017, while also dominating the 92 kg category by becoming a champion in 2018.  His dominance was reflected in a perfect 12-0 run, with three pins, seven technical falls, and a combined score of 105 points. ‘Borz’ also took part in four sambo fights and a few judo competitions as well.

With such a vast history of dominance under his belt, it is no wonder that Khamzat Chimaev is 13-0-0 in his MMA career. However, he would be going against one of the toughest UFC fighters, Robert Whittaker. The Aussie is coming into the fight after a round 1 win against Ikram Aliskerov. So Chimaev will surely have to tap into his vast pool of experience to come out as the winner in this face-off. What do you think? Will Chimaev be able to win the fight? Let us know in the comments.