In a gym tucked away in the rough mountains of Russia, a fighter trains with the intensity of a storm. He doesn’t come in front of the cameras, he has no interest in watching calculated film sessions. He is preparing for his next fight at the Kislovodsk Olympic base, a highly respected gym in his eyes. It played a key role in his comeback, as this is where he trained to demolish Robert Whittaker at UFC 308. However, he does have a raw passion for his path to glory and the sole objective to “beat everybody.” No, we’re not talking about a movie; we’re talking about the unstoppable force of the UFC, Khamzat Chimaev.

‘Borz’, after years of health struggles—something that has taken him out of the regular competition—seems like he’s back in the form he had when he made his debut in the UFC. And at UFC 319, Chimaev will finally get his long-awaited title shot when he clashes against Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight championship.

Amid one of his training sessions, at the Kislovodsk Olympic base, ‘The Wolf’ revealed that he never watches the fight tapes or visualizes his opponents. Instead, it’s his coaches who watch the tapes and visualise the fight for him. Chimaev focuses purely on training and adding to his fight arsenal.

During a training session at the Olympic base, while talking to Russian sports journalist Adam Zubayraev, Chimaev revealed: “I never visualize my fights, I don’t even watch my opponents. My coaches watch them. I once said, ‘I don’t like it.’ I’m not such a super fan to sit and watch. I know what I’ll do, and I focus on that, on training. And my opponents don’t really have anything special to not know what I’ll do.”

‘The Wolf’ in all of his ferocity and intensity, also gave us a glimpse of his emotional side, saying, “Anger. A person always gets angry. We’re human. Sometimes you get angry, sometimes you’re happy, sometimes you cry, everything happens in life.” 

Through his hardships, Khamzat’s journey of recovery has matured to being the best version of himself before he clashes against Du Plessis at UFC 319. But his meteoric rise in the UFC has been paralleled by a series of health challenges that have intermittently stalled his career. Let’s take a look at the health struggles that plagued his career, which can only be categorized as a “tempest.”

Khamzat Chimaev’s battle with health complications

Although he is one of the biggest stars in the organization, Chimaev’s career has had a dark cloud looming over it. Whenever his fights are announced, fans get less excited and more concerned about ‘Borz’s health and his chances of reaching the final showdown before his health gives out, thereby jeopardizing the fight. You can blame his vigorous training routine for it. But it’s more about him trying to train through health afflictions that might have severely worsened his condition.

In 2020, Chimaev contracted COVID-19, and upon his recovery, was scheduled to fight Leon Edwards. But due to complications as a result of the virus, Khamzat’s coach revealed that his lungs had not fully recovered, necessitating a break from training and competition. If he could’ve made it to the Octagon then, we might have seen Chimaev at the top of the welterweight in 2021, or 2022 at best.

At UFC 279, where ‘Borz’ was supposed to fight against Nate Diaz, he experienced extreme physical distress during his weight cut, including muscle spasms, vomiting, and episodes of him fainting. This led to a complete overhaul of the card, where he was paired against Kevin Holland instead of Diaz, and he and ‘Trailblazer’ fought at a catchweight. Even if ‘The Wolf’ was able to easily vanquish Holland’s challenge, but then the MMA community was concerned about Chimaev’s ability to ever make the welterweight limit again.

However, his run at middleweight was also a subject to health struggles as the Chechen fighter had to pull out of his fight against Robert Whittaker in Saudi Arabia before finally beating him at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. In this instance, before the high-profile bout, Chimaev’s manager revealed that ‘Borz’ was suffering from a persistent illness that could not be resolved in time, despite multiple hospital visits and treatment efforts.

But his struggles, it seems, have finally come to an end. After absolutely destroying ‘The Reaper’ of the middleweight division, Chimaev’s howl can be heard louder than ever. His long-awaited title shot is finally at his doorstep, and all ‘Borz’ has to do is maintain the best version of himself. He is, after all, going into the biggest fight of his life against Dricus Du Plessis. Will we finally see Khamzat Chimaev’s crowning moment at UFC 319? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.