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Chimaev’s seemingly promising UFC career has not fully lived up to its expectations after being plagued a lack of activity in recent years. The Chechen-born Swede is infamous for his massive weight miss for a scheduled fight against Nate Diaz in September 2022 in addition to multiple withdrawals.
Most recently, Chimaev was scheduled to headline UFC Saudi Arabia against Robert Whittaker this past June. However, “Borz” pulled out with less than two weeks to go after becoming violently ill. Chimaev was replaced on nine days’ notice by Ikram Aliskerov, who suffered a first-round knockout loss against Whittaker.
The booking between Whittaker and Chimaev is now rescheduled for UFC 308 on Oct. 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Chimaev revealed that he has reunited with his first wrestling coach, Salim Noutsalkhanov, going into the fight. According to Chimaev, it was overtraining that led to him getting sick in the past. However, the undefeated contender now gets enough rest training with Noutsalkhanov, who has also coached freestyle wrestling legend and three-time Olympic gold medallist Buvaisar Saitiev.
“The point is they now let me rest and recover properly,” Chimaev said on the Hustle Vlog (translation via Red Corner MMA). “I used to go to the gym and just train until I was done… But then I ended up in the hospital. Like the last time when I was in the hospital three times in a row within three weeks. My immune system went down, I got sick. Now I use a better approach. I work with good coaches. Salim raised a lot of champions. He also trained Buvaisar Saitiev for the Beijing Olympics. With people like, that I’m going to take a big step forward.”
While former champ Sean Strickland is adamant on fighting for the title next, the Whittaker vs. Chimaev matchup could also have a say in the middleweight championship picture. Whittaker has bounced back from a TKO loss against reigning champ Dricus Du Plessis with wins over Paulo Costa and Aliskerov. Meanwhile, Chimaev has finished five of his seven UFC wins so far, most recently earning a majority decision win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 293 in his middleweight debut.
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