While Khamzat
Chimaev has not been especially active in recent years, the
Chechen-born Swede has no plans of stepping away from mixed martial
arts.
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In a brief statement issued to MMAjunkie.com, Chimaev’s manager, Majdi
Shammas, denied retirement rumors that have persisted since the
middleweight withdrew from a headlining clash against Robert
Whittaker at
UFC on ABC 6 due to a severe illness.
“It’s absolutely not true,” Shammas said. “We’re planning on
getting to the bottom of this situation, the problems. He will be
back.”
Shammas painted a grave picture of Chimaev’s status in a separate
post on social media over the weekend. However, he also stated in
that post Chimaev’s UFC return would be “immediately rescheduled”
once the fighter was healthy.
“The persistent illness that Khamzat has been battling for major
parts of training camp could not be cured in time. He has been in
and out of hospitals several times,” Shammas wrote on Instagram. “The condition has been kept within the
team, since everyone has been absolutely committed to finding a
solution. Although all available options have been thoroughly
considered, it has now come to a point where the team has mutually
agreed that it is not possible to carry on like this. Stepping into
the cage not properly prepared against such a formidable opponent
as Robert is unfortunately impossible.”
Chimaev began his
UFC tenure as one of the hottest prospects in the sport,
vanquishing his first four Octagon foes inside of a round in an
approximately 13-month span. “Borz” has competed just three times
since October 2021, however. His last bout was at UFC 294, where he
earned a majority decision against Kamaru
Usman this past October.
The undefeated Allstars Training Center representative broke his
silence with a brief statement on social media Monday.
“We always plan something but Allah has his own plans for us,”
Chimaev wrote. “Alhamdulilah.”
Ikram
Aliskerov, a former Chimaev opponent, will step in and face
Robert
Whittaker in the new UFC on ABC 6 headliner at Kingdom Arena in
Riyadh, Saudia Arabia on Saturday.