Khamzat Chimaev denies claim that he can’t enter the United States: ‘I was told to wait and fight in Arab countries’
Khamzat Chimaev is denying rumors that he is unable to fight in the United States.
It’s been nearly two years since ‘Borz’ last fought stateside. That came at UFC 279 when he stepped on the scale massively overweight for his welterweight clash with Nate Diaz. Instead, Chimaev ended up fighting Kevin Holland at middleweight in a last-second shuffle to save the event from potential cancelation.
In the time since, rumors have surfaced that Chimaev is unable to obtain a visa to fight in the U.S. with the prevailing theory being that his relationship with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov landed him on the kind of list you really don’t want to be on.
However, Chimaev has denied such accusations, noting that the promotion attempted to book him for UFC 300 in April which emanated from Las Vegas.
“They got me the visa when they wanted it,” Chimaev said in an interview with Aslanbek Badaev. “Everyone says I was denied a visa. So far we have not applied for a visa. I was told to wait and fight in Arab countries for now. And I’m waiting and as everyone remembers, recently at UFC 300 I was offered a fight to perform in Las Vegas. The main event of the evening was against Leon Edwards. Then they could get me a visa so I could fight there. When needed, business is working one might say.”
Khamzat Chimaev reveals details regarding the illness that took him out of UFC Saudi arabia
Regardless of the reason, the UFC appears only interested in booking Chimaev on foreign cards, specifically those in the Middle East i.e. Saudi Arabia where he was expected to headline a June event against Robert Whittaker.
Unfortunately, ‘Borz’ bailed out on the bout after becoming “violently ill” with an undisclosed illness. Since then, Chimaev has opened up about the situation.
“My immunity had dropped very much, and we wanted to rest a little bit, for a week,” Chimaev said. “I rested and I did not come to my senses… I ended up in the hospital and, to be honest, I had severe headaches. They said it was stress, there was something there, they explained it to me.
“I was in the hospital for two days, then I was home. A week [I was] like this. Three days later, the same thing happened again, I ended up in the hospital again” (h/t Bloody Elbow).
Chimaev is currently targeting a return in October when the promotion makes its annual pit stop in Abu Dhabi for UFC 308. No opponent has been announced, but the undefeated star believes he’s already done more than enough to earn a shot at gold.
