Khamzat Chimaev is still creating controversies on the daily. After UFC 280 Abu Dhabi’s main event, the UFC star was filmed starting an altercation with Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin, Abubakar (also in UFC).
Security personnel could be seen restraining and dragging Chimaev away from the cage side on video.
Chimaev had previously attracted criticism when he shared a photo of him sitting cage-side hugging Kadyrov’s son, Ali.
There were speculations previously that Chimaev wasn’t free to leave Russia and that one of his passports was confiscated when he was visiting family. He’s been spending time at Chechen MMA club in the mean time and was even seen at a local MMA event.
There are speculations that the incident started due to the teenagers’s presence. An alternative angle of the altercation shows the teenager pointing at Abubakar cageside before the tense talk that led to the shoving happened.
Khabib Nurmagomedov was aware of the altercation that was happening during Makhachev’s octagon interview and was even tempted to jump the cage during the incident.
This is just the latest unpleasant exchange between the two camps.
Thanks to Russian heritage, Khamzat Chimaev is often compared to UFC Hall of famer Khabib Nurmagomedov. While Chechenya (Chimaev’s republic of origin) is very different from Dagestan (Nurmagomedov’s republic of origin) the casual MMA fan is none the wiser. The Chechen vs Dagestan rivalry is one of the reasons why Chimaev had to change management early on – Ali Abdelaziz didn’t take too kindly to Chimaev insulting his superstar client Khabib Nurmagomedov and let Chimaev go.
In his UFC 273 main card fight against Gilbert Burns, Chimaev was more than tested, he nearly got knocked out in the second round of the bout.
Chimaev ended up earning the decision victory over Burns, but the fight was so close that many people thought the Brazilian should have emerged victorious.
This resulted in harsh criticism from fans expecting perfection. A lot of fans are now comparing Khabib’s UFC record against Chimaev.
The war he had against Burns awarded him with several bruises and cuts, courtesy of the Brazilian welterweight.
By comparison, Nurmagomedov looked almost untouched after every single one of his 13 fights in the UFC.
This is where we should note that the featured image in this article depicts Nurmagomedov after a particularly violent sparring session with Islam Makhachev ahead of the McGregor bout.
Previously Chimaev was rumored to have made a dismissive comment during a live stream – which Nurmagomedov’s cousin witnessed causing alienation between the two camps.