Khabib Nurmagomedov is not exactly a fan of Khamzat Chimaev. While the two used to share a manager that all changed after Chimaev was caught making disparaging comments about him.
At the start of his UFC career, Chimaev was often compared to Nurmagomedov. Chechen warlord who is a patron of both claimed that Chimaev would destroy Khabib if they crossed paths.
Chimaev agreed with his words which Khabib’s brother saw and communicated to the rest of the family. There was an intense war of words between the two parties after that with Chimaev changing managers from Ali Abdelaziz to Allstars Sweden manager.
Chimaev has been increasingly close to Liverpool’s badboy Darren Till and has been misbehaving more or less. This doesn’t sit well with Nurmagomedov who commented:
“If you are a Muslim, you should have good people around you – Muslims who can say: ‘Hey, don’t do this,’” Nurmagomedov said.
“I recently watched the weigh-in of Khamzat Chimaev. I followed what was happening with his weight and looked at his team. There are no Muslims around him and this is very bad. Because if you are a Muslim, you need good, strong people around you. [They] will say: “Come back, do this.”
“When you become famous and rich, when you gain power and [around you] there are no people who will give advice or you do not listen to them, then something will happen. You need good people, even if you don’t like it, you need them,” he added (h/t bloodyelbow).
This is certainly an interesting take.
Nurmagomedov struggled to make weight himself in the past – of course he’s not been vulgar towards the media though he did jump that octagon fence and start an all out brawl at UFC 229 despite being surrounded with people of faith.
Team khabib has an axe to grind still with Chimaev – in the fall out from the Gilbert Burns match up, Khabib’s team used Chimaev’s battered face to prove that he and Khabib don’t belong in the same conversation because he’s never been battered in all his time in the UFC.
Team Chimaev reiterated that the cut opened on his cheek was stemming from an earlier incident.
It’s unknown where the two stand right now but if Chimaev were to compete against another Ali Abdelaziz (former manager he shared with Khabib) client such as Kamaru Usman the lead up would be interesting for sure.