Dana White is already eyeing up a brand new date for the return of Khamzat Chimaev after he was forced out of UFC Saudi Arabia.
The undefeated grappler was resulting from take the most important step up of his profession against Robert Whittaker within the predominant event of last night’s show in Riyadh. But a ‘violent illness’ cost him the fight, and it’s unknown when he’ll ever have the opportunity to get back within the octagon.
Chimaev is one of the crucial feared contenders at middleweight and welterweight, but health issues have hindered his profession thus far. He even announced his retirement once in 2021 after coughing up blood resulting from an illness, but has since returned and beaten the likes of Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns.
Dana White taking a look at UFC 308 for Khamzat Chimaev’s octagon return
Khamzat Chimaev hasn’t fought since October of last 12 months when he defeated Usman by means of a controversial Majority Decision. Prior to that, it had been over a 12 months since his farcical UFC 279 weight miss saw his bout with Nate Diaz cancelled and a showdown with Kevin Holland unexpectedly rearranged.
He was due back against Whittaker on Saturday night, but was ultimately replaced by Ikram Aliskerov who lost by first round knockout. And now White is hopeful that he’ll have the opportunity to fight in Abu Dhabi again.
Asked for an update on Chimaev during last night’s post-fight press conference, White wasn’t keen to make an excessive amount of of a comment. But he did throw out the potential for a brand new date, saying: “We’ll see what happens. Obviously possibly we try to maneuver him over to Abu Dhabi and see if he could make that fight.”
The UFC have already announced that they’re heading back for his or her annual show on the Etihad Arena on October 26. It is going to be entitled UFC 308, and can mark their twentieth outing within the region thus far.
Robert Whittaker’s teammate gives further details amid health struggles
Former world title contender Alexander Gustafsson has trained with Chimaev for years, and offered an interesting insight into the Swede’s health woes. Speaking with Crypto Betting Sites in a recent chat, he noted that he has at all times struggled with colds and illnesses, which has been exacerbated in recent times.
‘’The guy gets ailing,” Gustafsson said. “There’s something along with his body that reacts to hard training because he’s the toughest employee within the room, he’s at all times been the toughest employee. They should run some tests and see what the background is.
“Whether there’s something in his body that’s reacting to the hard training because he trains very hard. I hope they find what it’s and care for the issue and he gets higher. He very easily catches a chilly for instance – a running nose, coughing, symptoms that are usually not a giant deal in any respect, all of us get that.
“But I’ve seen when he increases his training quite a bit, I do know his body reacts otherwise to the training. I don’t know where it comes from. It’s crazy how he reacts to the training as of late.”
Nevertheless, the previous light-heavyweight title contender believes that he still has what it takes to beat the highest champions in his divisions. It’s unlikely we see Chimaev back at welterweight to face Leon Edwards, but Gustafsson reckons he could beat the likes of Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya.
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