One of the brightest young stars in the UFC might be calling it a career. Khamzat Chimaev (9-0) took to Instagram this evening and made a post where he seemingly announced his retirement from the sport.
Just today, we posted an article about Chimaev’s next potential opponent. Chimaev and Neil Magny have been going back and forth recently and the UFC was working on a potential matchup for June.
However, Chimaev has been struggling mightily with complications from COVID-19. Chimaev’s bout with COVID has seen his matchup with Leon Edwards cancelled twice. The UFC just flew Chimaev out to Las Vegas to get the medical treatment that he needed.
However, it now is not looking promising regarding Chimaev’s fighting future. The post was in Russian and we used a translation application to translate the UFC‘s stars post.
“I want to say thank you to everyone for their support in my path in this sport. I think I’m done, yes, I know that I didn’t take the belt, but this is not the most important victory in this life, it may upset you, but my heart and body tell me everything. I want to say a huge thank you to my team,” Chimaev said.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CL5cum2lU4R/
Has the UFC star retired?
I think it’s important to take a step back until we hear from the UFC. Until we hear an official announcement from the promotion or Dana White, let’s take this announcement with a grain of salt.
However, it’s no secret that Chimaev has had a tough battle over the last couple of months. His battle with COVID hasn’t allowed him to train and at one point, Chimaev has said that he thought he was going to die.
Khamzat Chimaev made his UFC debut back on the promotion’s first trip to Fight Island. From the moment he debuted, Chimaev took the UFC by storm. The promotion was putting him on the fast track to a title shot. However, everything was completely thrown off by COVID.
This story is developing and we will continue to follow up when there’s updates. As of now, there’s still been no word from the promotion.