Khamzat Chimaev has quickly become one of the most talked-about stars in the UFC. With his impressive skills inside the Octagon and his charismatic personality outside of it, Chimaev has captivated audiences. However, one of the moments that made headlines was when he got into an disagreement with a member of Khabib’s team.
During UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, Chimaev allegedly got into a shoving match with Abubakar Nurmagomedov, a teammate of Islam Makhachev. The reason for the disagreement is unknown, but Chimaev has since revealed that it was “never a big thing.”
Despite the incident with Abubakar, Chimaev maintains that he never had any problems with Khabib himself. In fact, he claims to draw inspiration from the Eagle while competing inside the Octagon.
Chimaev told Helwani:
“Everyone thinks like I had some problems with Khabib. I never had problems with Khabib. His brother or cousin, I don’t know, we had some conversations, little bit of problems with each other so but it was never a big thing. So we meet in Abu Dhabi, we said sorry that we punched each other, I don’t know….When we grow up you know, people from Dagestan and Chechen we fight like that you know?… I never had some problems with Khabib. ”
This is an interesting statement considering Nurmagomedov criticized Chimaev for the company he keeps in addition to the bad example his middle finger gesture gave while missing weight for UFC 279.
Chimaev wasn’t innocent in this either, he trolled Khabib Nurmagomedov and even posed with ring girls.
Many people speculated that Khabib was the one who resolved the issue between Chimaev and Abubakar. However, it was later revealed that it was Ramzan Kadyrov, the Head of the Chechen Republic and an influential figure in Russia, who took charge.
Kadyrov used Instagram to show that the situation had been diffused, sharing a screenshot of a video call between himself, Chimaev, and Abubakar. After the call, both parties seemed to have resolved their differences and were on their best behavior.
Chimaev trains two of Kadyrov’s sons in MMA, which has drawn criticism from some due to the Chechen dictator’s controversial actions. However, any bad blood between Chimaev and Khabib was squashed after the incident, and it’s unlikely that there will be any future bouts between members of their respective teams. Chimaev was once on the trajectory to clash with Belal Muhammad (who had periodically trained with Khabib) and Shavkat Rakhmanov (who trained under Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov in his youth).
Chimaev is likely to face Paulo Costa in October.