“No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does in the end is what he intended to do all along,” as said by legendary Mike Tyson was just proven by Khamzat Chimaev. ‘Borz’ has been suffering from a lot of sickness recently which even made him withdraw from the previous fight with Robert Whittaker. As for his last outing which was with Kamaru Usman, the Dagestani just revealed that he was not in his best shape while fighting, but he still persevered and won at UFC 294. He explained the situation in a presser as per Full Send MMA.
The post by Full Send MMA had a picture of what Chimaev said and had the caption, “Khamzat Chimaev revealed but didn’t make excuses and said he may not have been the same Khamzat we were used to because he was sick on the morning of his fight with Kamaru Usman.” The Instagram upload came with a video as well where ‘Borz’ explained his stance. He said, “I have been pushing on from first second to last second on my sparring I don’t think it will be different in the cage. I did not say anything about my health before the Usman fight or everyone thinks that what happened and went inside the cage healthy. So it was not that. I was sick in the morning before the fight so I am; don’t find excuses , I don’t cry like I had a sore throat and all this… I jump in and show with my fights you know? Yeah we are all fighters, we don’t need to find some excuses.”
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Even though the middleweight stalwart made people concerned and some even laughed about his illness, he still persisted. One of the individuals who made fun of the Dagestani for falling sick was Dricus Du Plessis who mocked the Chechen wolf after the latter posted a jacked picture of himself. ‘Stillknocks’ went into the comments and wrote, “Put a shirt on princess before you catch another cold.”, which made fans go into a laughing frenzy.
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However, there were many like UFC CEO Dana White and even Chimaev’s manager who wanted his speedy recovery. Since then, he has changed his training regimen as well to support his health so that he does not overwork himself and fall ill. Chimaev had opened up about his persisting illness with Kevin Iole and said that he overstrained his body while training which led to the condition. As UFC 308 gets closer, he has revealed a new side to himself and spoken openly about both his mental and physical well-being.
Khamzat Chimaev has implemented huge changes to his training before UFC 308
Chimaev and Whittaker were originally scheduled to clash at UFC on ABC 6 in June but due to a severe medical issue, the former was forced to pull out of the bout and was replaced by Ikram Aliskerov. However, he is back to have the much-awaited fight against ‘The Reaper’ and has a new mindset about his health and training. In a video shared by Red Corner MMA on Instagram, his changed outlook was seen while he spoke about his mental and physical health. Chimaev admitted, “You can say, my depression went away. I had a few problems, but I resolved everything.” For a deadly fighter to show such a vulnerable side is truly humbling.
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He was always someone who trained beyond his physical bandwidth but now he has a changed way of looking at training and hard work. The Chechen warrior finally listened to his body and is back with a new workout regime that has more resting periods in between his training. He admitted his previous mistakes to Adam Zubayraev and said, “I even usually took vitamins incorrectly before. I was just training in the gym and fighting. Everyone thought I woke up and fought.” Chimaev continued, “Thank God, everything is fine now. I’m human too, I also have my own problems. They needed to be solved.”
If Chimaev could win against Kamaru Usman while being unwell, then imagine what he can do when his body is at 100% optimum level. With this same confidence in mind, Chimaev said that, even though Whittaker was “one of the best guys at the top,” he was “ the best wrestler in the UFC.” Chimaev even said that his right hand can KO Robert Whittaker. So do you think this time ‘Borz’ will win since he is entering the octagon with 100% power?
Made a Laughing Stock for His Health Issues, Khamzat Chimaev Adds Another Sad Update on Illness Before UFC 308
