One thing most some people learn by the time they're adults is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. A lot of us, myself included, failed to heed that lesson in regard to Khamzat Chimaev.
On Thursday, UFC CEO Dana White announced Chimaev was violently ill and was out of his bout on June 22 against ex-middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC on ABC 6 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Ikram Aliskerov replaced Chimaev.
Chimaev was most definitely an under-the-radar signing when the UFC inked him to a deal in 2020. There wasn't a press release sent out and it received next-to-no attention in the MMA media. Less than two weeks after his debut, by the time he had two UFC fights on his ledger, he was the talk of the sport.
He fought two times in 10 days and three times in 66 days. He was 3-0 after two months in the UFC with three finishes. He landed 87 of the 120 significant strikes he threw and absorbed one significant fight. Wins over John Phillips, Rhys McKee and Gerald Meerschaert made him a sensation, as did his trash talking. He fought like an angry grizzly bear.
He was set to fight Leon Edwards -- Yes, that Leon Edwards -- on Dec. 19, 2020. It didn't take much to see that he was the sport's next big thing.
It's 2024 and we're still waiting, though. All of a sudden he's 30 and far less of a sensation. Those who are talking about him are mostly angry that he pulled out of the fight.
His manager, Majid Shammas, said in a statement on Instagram that Chimaev had been in and out of the hospital repeatedly during training camp.
"But everything happens for a reason and God has his own plans," Shammas wrote. "The goals remain the same. Khamzat and team will now get to the bottom of the cause of the issues, and he will come back even stronger. This is unfortunately a part of the fight game and as soon as Khamzat is healthy, his much-anticipated return to the Octagon will be immediately rescheduled."
It all began to go sideways in the fall of 2020 when Chimaev got COVID-19. In March of 2021, he said he was going to retire because he was having lung issues, which was an aftermath of COVID. He returned at UFC 267 on Oct. 30, 2021, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to face Li Jingliang, and he was typically brilliant. It had been one year, one month and 12 days since his 17-second KO of Meerschaert, but it seemingly had no impact.
He was talking to White during the action as he was beating Jingliang to a bloody pulp. He was 25 for 25 with his significant strikes and for the third time in four fights, didn't absorb a significant strike. He submitted Jingliang at 3:16 of the first round. Notably, he had 3:01 of control time in the fight.
It was at that point that the story changed, significantly. Chimaev had four fights in his first 15 months in the promotion. He's had three fights in the next two years, seven months and 15 days. He was 4-0 in those first four bouts, with three first-round finishes and a second. Since, he's 3-0 but he's gone to decision twice and had one submission.
Unlike most fighters who can't compete, it isn't an injury but his health which is keeping Chimaev on the shelf.
That said, he hasn't been the same dominant fighter in his last three that he was in the first four in the UFC. He beat Gilbert Burns by decision at UFC 273 on April 9, 2022, in an entertaining Fight of the Night battle. It was a fun, memorable bout. But Chimaev had looked human, and vulnerable. Then-welterweight champion Kamaru Usman dominated and then knocked out Burns 14 months earlier. Burns pushed Chimaev to his limit.
He choked out Kevin Holland at UFC 279 on Sept. 10, 2022, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but that win comes with a major asterisk. He was supposed to fight Nate Diaz in the main event, missing weight by an ungodly 71/2 pounds.
He defeated Usman by majority decision in his last fight in a middleweight bout at UFC 294 on Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi. Usman took the bout on less than two weeks' notice and moved up a class, but Chimaev couldn't finish him.
So the guy who once seemed to be lined up as the successor to the likes of Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva and Khabib Nurmagomedov now seems something much less, someone far more human and vastly more vulnerable.
It's sad that the man can't stay healthy.
He's got unbelievable skills and his trash talk is next level.
You can't talk a good game in the UFC and not perform, though.
There's still a chance, but with each passing days, one wonders whether we'll ever see that scary, dominating version of Khamzat Chimaev again.
Let's hope he can, but I'm not betting my money on it.