Khamzat Chimaev desires to pursue Olympic gold medal in wrestling after defending UFC title

Khamzat Chimaev has designs on claiming an Olympic gold medal for wrestling to hitch his UFC world title.

The Chechen-born middleweight will defend his belt for the primary time at UFC 328 on Saturday night against Sean Strickland. He has also signed as much as make his debut for RAF Wrestling later this yr, with fans clamouring for a match between him and Kyle Snyder.

If Khamzat Chimaev wins at UFC 328, what would you wish to see him do next?

‘Borz’ has consistently spoken about wanting to maneuver as much as 205 kilos

Nevertheless, Chimaev would slightly compete against Olympic-level wrestlers by actually qualifying for the games themselves. He would represent his adopted home of the United Arab Emirates, and believes that he could make a serious run in future.

Khamzat Chimaev opens up about potential Olympic wrestling move

During an eventful media day ahead of Saturday’s fight, Khamzat Chimaev told the press of his plans to compete for 2 more UFC belts at light-heavyweight and even heavyweight. He also noted that a run for Olympic gold on the wrestling mats could possibly be in his future.

Asked by Bloody Elbow if he might be facing Kyle Snyder during his planned RAF Wrestling matchups later this yr, Chimaev replied: “If the pay is nice, then sure. But when it’s tough money then I don’t want that form of match.

“If I need to wrestle Olympic champs then I’m going to go within the Olympic games for the UAE, so it’s one among the opportunities too… We’ve got to see because without delay I’m just focused on this fight and getting back to Abu Dhabi to fight there. Then after that we’ll give it some thought.”

As for comparing winning Olympic gold with a UFC title, Chimaev replied that he is solely “trying to search out a option to compete with someone.” He also noted that “it’ll be very hard to get gold, you’ve really set to work for that because there are quite a lot of good guys over there at my weight.”