Much has been made of Chimaev’s ties to his homeland. While Chimaev enjoys a swanky lifestyle with fast cars, branded clothes and UFC infamy he also visits his family quite a bit.
During the latest visit, Chimaev was rumored to have had his passport confiscated and having had to extend his visit for two weeks. During the two weeks he’s been working on his mixed martial arts in the company of Chechen warlord’s adolescent sons.
While Chimaev absorbed significant strikes in only one of his UFC clashes he seems to regularly take a beating from chubby teens in his homeland. He also shared images of said beating on social media.
Chimaev seemed to be being beaten up by Kadyrov’s boys in pictures posted on social media. Ali Kadyrov posted a picture of the duo working out together with the caption “Brotherly rub,” while the boxer titled his post “Brother.”
If anything, taking the strikes from the boys makes Chimaev smart considering how detrimental to one’s health opposing said warlord can be. Just ask the boxing ref who refereed Adam Kadyrov’s boxing bout.
After Adam visibly gets tagged and starts losing steam, ref steps in and declares his opponent knocked out on two count in an apparent sham.
Fans criticized the photographs as “embarrassing” for Chimaev, whose popularity has dropped significantly after he missed weight for his duel with Nate Diaz at UFC 279 last month. A hurried catchweight match against Kevin Holland did nothing to allay criticism of his behavior during media week.
Brazilian combat sports outlet Combate was the first to report that Chimaev’s scheduled visit to Brazil might be off due to issues with his passport. As per the source:
“Chimaev had his passport arrested in St. Petersburg, where he disembarked before heading to Chechnya, when he was going to visit his family, and so he could no longer leave the country.”
Chimaev’s agent – and Allstar gym member Mahdi Shammas finally answered media after the report and explained Chimaev is visiting family and expects he’ll leave Russia in 2 weeks.
Shammas let Brett Okamoto of ESPN know that Chimaev plans to leave in two weeks and is spending time with his family. This is a carefully worded statement that doesn’t really refute the source’s claim that Chimaev’s passport was confiscated in St. Petersburg.
Chimaev made an appearance last night at the ACA MMA show.
As per MMA megafan Caposa, Chimaev is currently in Gozny at ACA 146. His friend Rasul Albaskhanov just won.
As per the same source, the feed of the MMA event tried hard to make sure he was in the backdrop.
Fans had fun with the spotting and even went so far as to photoshop Chimaev as if he was a hostage.
