Khamzat Chimaev needed just 94 seconds to put Tyron Woodley away in the main event of the RAF card in Moscow, but it was what he did after the final whistle that had fans and commentators buzzing.
Stepping into the spotlight in front of his home crowd, Chimaev was wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Buvaisar Saitiev, the Russian wrestling icon whose story ended under circumstances that Russian authorities have never fully explained.
Chael Sonnen, conducting the post-bout interview, noticed the shirt right away and asked Chimaev what it meant to him. The answer turned into one of the more genuine moments of the night.
“It’s very important for all Chechen boys and all the young wrestlers from Russia,” Chimaev said. “So, he’s a legend, one of the best in wrestling. My victories… I want to dedicate them to him, you know. He’s not with us right now, but he’s in our hearts.”
For Chimaev, wearing that shirt on Russian soil was not a casual choice. His path in the sport started back in Chechnya, in the same wrestling circles that produced Saitiev, and the two men share a coach in common.
Salim Noutsalkhanov trained a young Chimaev in his earliest days on the mat and later worked with him again during subsequent camps. That same coach had also guided Saitiev’s preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, tying Chimaev’s tribute directly back to the people who shaped his own rise.
Saitiev’s résumé is part of the reason his name still carries so much weight in Russian wrestling circles. He won his first Olympic gold at the Atlanta Games in 1996, claiming the title in the 163 pound (74 kg) freestyle division at just 21 years old.
Rather than fade after that early peak, he came back to win gold again at the 2004 Athens Games, then added a third title in the same weight class at the 2008 Beijing Games, a run that put him in the conversation as one of the finest freestyle wrestlers the sport has produced. He stepped away from competition in 2009.
His influence reached well past Russia’s borders. After news of his passing broke, Olympic and UFC champion Henry Cejudo spoke about how much he had “looked up” to Saitiev throughout his own wrestling career, going as far as calling him “the greatest athlete who has ever lived.”
Saitiev’s later years took him away from the mat and into politics, where he became a member of President Putin’s United Russia Party. It was in that chapter of his life, far from the sport that made him famous, that his story came to its end.
On March 2, 2025, Saitiev, then 49, was found in critical condition on Minskaya Street in Moscow by a janitor. According to Baza, a Telegram channel with ties to Russian security services, he showed no visible injuries or bleeding at first, which left the circumstances murky from the start. He was rushed to the hospital but could not be saved.
His wife was not home at the time. Speaking to the Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets, she said she had stepped out while her husband was resting in bed watching television.
“I think it was just an accident,” she said. She described the injuries he sustained, to his pelvis and ribs, as consistent with a fall, and pointed to his declining health as a possible factor. “Perhaps Buivasar was not fully aware of what he was doing,” she said. “He suffered from a serious lung disease and was forced to take strong pain killers.”
Saitiev’s brother offered a separate theory during questioning, suggesting he may have lost his footing while doing housework.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, meanwhile, said on Telegram that Saitiev had been receiving treatment in Moscow for heart problems in the period before his passing.
“This is an irreparable loss for the entire country, for the world of sports, for everyone who knew this outstanding person,” Kadyrov said. Russia’s Sports Minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, called the loss “premature and tragic.”
Chechnya observed three days of mourning from March 3 to 5, with Russian and Chechen national flags lowered to half-mast across the republic for the duration.
The vague nature of Saitiev’s final hours has drawn comparisons to a string of other unexplained falls involving prominent Russian figures since the invasion of Ukraine began.
Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov fell from a hospital window in 2022, and businessman Pavel Antov fell from a window while traveling in India in 2023, shortly after he had spoken out against the war. Neither case received a conclusive public explanation, and Saitiev’s passing has now been folded into that same uneasy pattern by observers watching from outside Russia.
It means more for Khamzat 🤝 pic.twitter.com/e8j6SRwsE4
— Real American Freestyle (@RAFWrestlingUSA) September 5, 2026
