MMA veteran and coach Din Thomas found himself at the center of controversy this week after comments he made about UFC welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev sparked accusations of racism across social media platforms.
The controversy began when Thomas appeared on Mike Bonfire’s show and expressed concerns about Chimaev potentially becoming champion, calling it “a disaster.” The comment quickly spread online, with some fans interpreting his remarks as racially motivated against the Swedish-Chechen contender.
On a recent episode of his Fight Court podcast, Thomas vehemently denied the racist allegations and clarified his position. “It’s crazy because I talked to Laura Sanko about this today. You know, he asked me about, you know, if Khamzat becomes champion, I was like, yo, that’s a disaster. He doesn’t fight enough,” Thomas explained to co-host Ryan Quinn.
Thomas emphasized that his criticism was purely based on Chimaev’s match frequency, not his ethnicity or religion. “What I was saying was that he’s a man who averaged in the last couple of years one fight a year. And he wasn’t champion. Like he’s not even champion and he’s still averaging one fight a year. I was like, imagine him being champion with like obligations. This dude’s never going to fight.”
The veteran coach expressed frustration at how his comments were misconstrued, particularly the suggestion that he harbors anti-Muslim sentiments. “They was like, ‘Yo, I hate Muslims.’ I’m like, ‘Yo.’ So now I know how white people feel when I pull a race card. Like it ain’t got nothing to do with that.”
Thomas pointed to his extensive history training Muslim competitors throughout his career as evidence against the racism claims. “Man, I’ve been training Muslims my whole damn career,” he stated, naming several fighters including Magomed Magomedkerimov and Rashid Magomedov. “In fact, I used to love training them because they were so disciplined.”
He elaborated on his positive experiences with Muslim competitor, describing their work ethic and dedication. “They would come down, they would pray, they’d work, we didn’t even speak the same language, but we just communicated because of the art. And then they go back up in the room. We do that every day.”
The coach clarified that his concerns about Chimaev as champion were purely about division activity. “I was saying if he’s a champion and he’s not fighting regularly and he holds the division up. It sucks for all the up-and-comers who need action, who need movement in the division when the champion is not fighting regularly.”
Thomas acknowledged that welterweight contender Belal Muhammad even created a response video to his comments, but he took it in stride. “I was flattered, man. You know, because you know, I go off and I say a bunch of stuff and I say a lot of worse than that and like, you know, stuff goes unnoticed. But then when I say some stuff and like when you know, people start talking or Belal Muhammad like creates a video about it like that’s pretty flattering actually.”
Despite the backlash, Thomas maintained his stance that his criticism was legitimate and based solely on combat frequency concerns.
