Khamzat Chimaev claims to have made significant changes to his training methods ahead of his next bout.
Chimaev’s UFC career has been plagued by a lack of activity in recent years and has not entirely lived up to expectations. The Chechen-born Swede notoriously withdrew from multiple bouts in addition to being significantly overweight for his scheduled bout with Nate Diaz in September 2022.
Chimaev was most recently scheduled to face Robert Whittaker at UFC Saudi Arabia in June of this year, but “Bolz” fell seriously ill less than two weeks before the bout and the fight was cancelled. Chimaev was replaced on nine days’ notice by Ikram Aliskerov, who was defeated by Whittaker by first-round knockout.
The Whittaker-Chimaev bout has been rescheduled for UFC 308, which will take place on October 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Chimaev revealed that he has reunited with his original wrestling coach, Salim Nutsarkhanov, in preparation for the bout. Chimaev said that his past health problems were caused by overtraining, but the unbeaten challenger is well-rested and training under Nutsarkhanov, who also trained freestyle wrestling legend and three-time Olympic gold medalist Bubaysar Saitiev.
“The important thing is that they are now allowing me to rest and recover properly,” Chimaev told Hustle Blog (translated via Red Corner MMA). “Before, I would go to the gym and train until I was exhausted… but I ended up in the hospital. Last time, I was hospitalized three times in a row within three weeks. My immune system was compromised and I was in bad shape. Now I’m taking a better approach. I’m training with good coaches. Salim has trained many champions; he even coached Bubaysal Saitiev for the Beijing Olympics. With these guys, I think I can take a big step forward.”
A Whittaker-Chimaev bout could also determine the outcome of the middleweight championship, although former champion Sean Strickland remains adamant that he will fight for the title next. Whittaker is coming off a TKO loss to current champion Dricus du Plessis before bouncing back with wins over Paulo Costa and Aliskerov, while Chimaev has won five of his seven UFC bouts to date, most recently beating Kamaru Usman by majority decision in his middleweight debut at UFC 293.
