Fast facts
- Division: Middleweight (UFC); Cruiserweight in Real American Freestyle
- Record: 15-1 in MMA
- Nationality: United Arab Emirates (born in the Chechen Republic, Russia)
- Team/gym: Allstars Training Center, Stockholm
- Notable wins: Dricus du Plessis, Robert Whittaker, Kamaru Usman, Gilbert Burns, Kevin Holland, Li Jingliang
The scar on Khamzat Chimaev’s lip came from a set of concrete stairs. He was two years old when he fell, and the injury left him unable to breathe properly through one nostril. People who see him for the first time tend to read that mark as something earned in a fight. It’s older than any of that, older than the wrestling mats in Gvardeyskoye, the village in the Chechen Republic where he was born on May 1, 1994, into a poor and conservative Muslim family, and where he started wrestling at five.
The night shift
At 18, in 2013, Chimaev left Russia for Sweden with his mother to join his older brother, Artur, who also wrestles freestyle. He settled first in Kalmar, trained at the local wrestling club, and paid the bills working at a poultry factory and doing security. Somewhere in there he took a 15-minute break during a night of work and watched Conor McGregor fight Jose Aldo. He told ESPN later what went through his head: “I always look at that like if the guys make so many money like millions and this stuff, why I can’t do it now. I’m a fighter, I’m a warrior and I have something special inside me.”
The wrestling was already there. He won Swedish freestyle national titles at 86 kilograms in 2016 and 2017, then at 92 kilograms in 2018, going 12-0 across those three tournaments and outscoring opponents 105-2. He’d also dabbled in judo and had four combat sambo fights. But he was 23 before he walked into Allstars Training Center in Stockholm to learn MMA, which is late by any standard.
Allstars is where the story turns into something. Reza Madadi became his main trainer, and he rolled with Alexander Gustafsson, a three-time light heavyweight title challenger, and Ilir Latifi. In June 2019, Gustafsson told a Swedish reporter that Chimaev was among the best fighters he’d ever trained with. Coming from a man who went five rounds with Jon Jones, that carries weight, and it’s worth remembering that Madadi’s name rarely comes up when people talk about how Chimaev got this good.
Ten days, then 66
He went 3-0 as an amateur between September 2017 and April 2018, then turned pro in May 2018 with a second-round TKO of Gard Olve Sagen. Brave Combat Federation signed him after two fights. There he put away Sidney Wheeler in 35 seconds and knocked out Ikram Aliskerov, a former combat sambo world champion, with an uppercut in the first round.
The UFC brought him in on short notice in July 2020. He submitted John Phillips at middleweight on July 16, then stopped Rhys McKee at welterweight 10 days later, a modern UFC record for the quickest consecutive wins. On September 19 he knocked out Gerald Meerschaert with one punch 17 seconds into the fight, three wins in 66 days. Across his first two UFC bouts he outlanded opponents 192-2.
Then COVID-19 hit him hard. He tested positive in late November 2020, the Leon Edwards main event fell apart three separate times, and lingering lung problems sent him to the hospital more than once. On March 1, 2021, he posted on Instagram that he was retiring. Dana White said Chimaev wasn’t retired, only emotional after struggling with the effects of prednisone during a training session.
The fights that defined him
He came back at UFC 267 in October 2021 and choked Li Jingliang unconscious in the first round. Six months later at UFC 273, Gilbert Burns gave him the first real fight of his career, and Chimaev won a unanimous decision in a Fight of the Night. As of 2025, that one bout accounted for nearly 70% of all the significant strikes he’d absorbed in nine UFC fights. Before Burns, he’d won four UFC fights and taken two total strikes.
UFC 279 in September 2022 was the low point: he weighed in at 178.5 pounds, seven and a half over the limit, lost his main event with Nate Diaz, and submitted Kevin Holland with a D’Arce choke instead at a 180-pound catchweight. After a year away he moved back to middleweight and edged former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman by majority decision at UFC 294 in October 2023, taking the fight after Paulo Costa needed surgery.
The Robert Whittaker fight at UFC 308 in October 2024 was the one that made people sit up. He finished the former champion with a face crank in the first round, dislocating Whittaker’s jaw. Ten months later, at UFC 319 on August 16, 2025, he beat Dricus du Plessis by unanimous decision for the middleweight title. By then he’d moved to the UAE (in 2023) and become a citizen in January 2025, which made him the first athlete representing the Emirates to win a UFC belt. He’s also close to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a relationship that follows him everywhere.
The style is easy to describe and hard to stop. He wrestles opponents to the mat, hooks the legs, uses the handcuff lock that draws constant comparisons to Khabib Nurmagomedov, and buries his weight into people until they give up a submission or eat ground-and-pound. He feints takedowns to open up his right hand from orthodox and vice versa. His defense is mostly his offense.
The split decision
On May 9, 2026, at UFC 328 in Newark, Sean Strickland took the title by split decision. It was the first loss of Chimaev’s MMA career, and it was close enough that 13 of 24 media outlets scored it for him. Knockout Daily’s rankings now have him at No. 3 at middleweight, 15-1.
What he did next is the most interesting thing about him right now. He’d signed with Real American Freestyle in April, and on June 13 he pinned Dillon Danis in 44 seconds at RAF 10, the fastest pin in the promotion’s history. He pinned Tyron Woodley in the first round at RAF Moscow on September 5, then beat Burns again on September 18 at RAF 13, this time by technical fall. Three matches in a little over three months, at an age (32) when most ex-champions are sulking through a long layoff.
Strickland, meanwhile, is stuck. He was healthy for UFC 335 after an ATV rollover, MMA Mania’s Alex Behunin reported on X, but the UFC went elsewhere. When a fan suggested Strickland wanted more money to fight Nassourdine Imavov, Strickland replied to confirm it. Imavov has offered $500,000 of his own money if Strickland beats him in January. Chimaev’s response to all of it, per MMA Fighting, was to tell Strickland to send him his location.
He doesn’t have to wait on anyone. Chimaev wrestles Robbie Lawler in the RAF 14 co-main event on October 23, and Bloody Elbow reported he’s set to face Colby Covington for the RAF Crossover title on November 14, the same night UFC 334 runs at Madison Square Garden.
