To say Khamzat Chimaev is a confident athlete is an understatement. In every interview Chimaev gives, it becomes evident that the thought of being defeated doesn’t even cross his mind.
And perhaps he has good reason to think like that.
The Chechen-born athlete was had a long winning streak in Freestyle wrestling in Sweden- however he wasn’t undefeated. Chimaev became a three-time Swedish National gold medalist in freestyle wrestling.
After transitioning to MMA, Chimaev has managed to be even more impressive. Khamzat is undefeated in his professional career, and none of his opponents has been able to survive past the second round so far.
His UFC run has also been nothing short of perfect. For the most part, Chimaev dominated all of his opponents with none of them even landing a memorable punch. That being said he’s been matched with unranked opponents and this weekend will be a huge test for him considering he is meeting title contender Gilbert Burns.
That confidence is what drove Chimaev to challenge the Olympic athlete and former two division champion of the UFC, Daniel Cormier, to a wrestling match.
During an interview for Cormier’s Youtube channel, Chimaev jokingly stated that he would “smash” him 10 points to none if they ever wrestled each other.
“Brother, I’m going to smash you,” Chimaev said as he provoked the American. “I’m going to smash you brother in wrestling. 10-0 brother.”
Chimev didn’t stop at Cormier either:
“You know American wrestling, is no technique brother, only single-leg. You’re single-leg guys…”
When “DC” tried to respond to him by saying that he had gone to three Olympic games, Chimaev added:
“Brother what happened when you was in here in Dagestan?” Khamzat said referring to when Cormier competed in Dagestan for the 2005 Super Cup.
“I won one match, and in the other one the guy punched me!” Cormier told him. “The dirty wrestler punched my face!”
“How did you let him punch you, brother?” Khamzat said questioning the Olympic wrestler.
“I punched him back!” Cormier said. “This is a wrestling match this is not a boxing match, I don’t know what you guys were doing up there [in Dagestan].”
Cormier and Chimaev were referring to Cormier’s wrestling match against Shamil Gitinov in Dagestan in 2005. During the bout, Gitinov really does punch Cormier in the face, and Cormier proceeds to return the favor.
This is not the first time Cormier gets roasted by a Russian for this incident. There is another video online of Khabib Nurmagomedov poking fun at Cormier for punching Gitinov in Dagestan.