Before MMA, Khamzat was a noteworthy wrestler in Sweden. Chimaev boasts with an undefeated Freestyle Wrestling record, having won 3 Swedish national championships.
However, a recent video emerged of Khamzat competing under a different name.
Prior to competing as “Khamzat Chimaev”, he used to compete under his birth name “Khamzat Girikhanov”.
Reports say that Khamzat changed his name to “Chimaev” right after his professional MMA debut. The reason for the change is because it means “Viking”.
During his days competing under his birth name, Khamzat once faced the Olympian wrestler Zacarias Berg during a freestyle wrestling match. In the video, fans can see a rare moment that is seeing Khamzat being on the worse end of grappling exchanges.
But in addition to mauling UFC’s resident Swede Alex Gustafsson, Chimaev also got to wrestle Daniel Cormier at one time.
“Let’s make a wrestling match brother, what you think?” Chimaev asked to former champ Cormier.
For those with short term memory – Daniel Cormier was once a member of the US Olympic team in freestyle wrestling and is a formidable opponent – especially for someone like Chimaev who has skill but doesn’t have a clear understanding of the rules of freestyle wrestling.
But while nothing officially happened Chimaev did get to wrestle a bit with Cormier.
Previously Chimaev criticized American school of wrestling saying:
“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.