UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev recently sat down for an interview, where he talked about his aspirations in the UFC.
During the conversation, Chimaev was asked about fans and critics who feel he does not compete often enough. The interviewer asked: “I know a lot of people always see you and talk about you, that ‘Oh, he doesn’t compete so often. He fights too rarely. He is not that active.’ How does that affect you?”
Chimaev replied directly, “I don’t care. Geez guys, I make millions, people just talking and doing nothing. So I don’t have time to speak about somebody who’s saying ‘he’s doing that.’ I care about myself…. How much I make, how much I compete.”
What does drive him, however, is family. Not just his mother and father, but the entire circle of people he has built around himself over the years, from his days in Sweden to his current life in Abu Dhabi.
“I’m still competing for my family, for my people,” he said. “All of my friends is my family. All the people who is close, my brother is my family…. I’m trying to competing for everyone.”
Money, he admits, is part of it too, but with a purpose. Chimaev revealed that he spent somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 dollars building a gym in his home village in Chechnya. When people from his village call with problems, he helps.
“Money gives me that opportunity to help people,” he said. “I’m happy to make money to help make people happy.”
Before a match, there are no mental pep talks, no internal monologue. He simply waits.
“I never talk to myself,” he said. “I just was waiting for getting to the cage. It’s just to be there and compete against the guy and win.”
As for fear of anyone in the division, the answer was equally brief. “He has two legs, two hands, one head,” he said, questioning why he should fear his opponent.
