Remember how Khamzat Chimaev versus Robert Whittaker couldn’t take place in Saudi Arabia on June 22 as the former got violently ill? Instead, ‘Bobby Knuckles’ faced Ikram Aliskerov and won via KO in round 1. But Chimaev versus Whittaker is something that the UFC has been eyeing for a long time and fans are hopeful that this fight will successfully take place at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi.

They will clash for the co-main event and the Swedish fighter has already started taking digs at his opponent. But what if he worded it in a way that massively backfired?

The undefeated fighter took to X and wrote, “@robertwhittaker ICU soon!” This tweet didn’t last long, as Chimaev had to delete it because of backlash. Let us now forget his long medical history of sickness and threatening Whittaker in this manner only invited ridicule.

‘Borz’ initially looked like the next big thing in the promotion. He was an active fighter, who just wanted to ‘smesh’ every fighter in his way. But COVID-19 was rough on him. “If you’re sick, you can’t think about fight and some of this stuff. I was thinking, one month sick, and still two months sick, how to finish with this? Now I start to be healthy, now I’m hungry again. I want to be back there and smash, fight somebody, make money. It’s fun for me to do it,” he stated in 2021.

While he was dealing with his COVID-19 symptoms, he almost retired from fighting. It was Dana White who convinced him to stay put, and the promotion flew Chimaev to Las Vegas for treatment. After getting better, he returned to the octagon and faced Jingliang Li, only to dominate him completely. Chimaev looked good.

Post this, he also faced Gilbert Burns, Kevin Holland, and Kamaru Usman, extending his undefeated record. But soon, health woes struck again before his right against Whittaker and he had to withdraw. “I had a lung infection and all sorts of health problems,” he shared during an interview with Aslanbek Badaev in July.

“Immune failure. We rested a little for a week, we rested, but I didn’t recover. I went to the hospital and had severe headaches. They said it was stress, that’s what was explained to me. I was in the hospital for two days, then I was at home for a week. Then it started again. Three days later, the same thing happened. I ended up in the hospital again.”

In June, Boez’s teammate, Alexander Gustafsson, shared his thoughts as well. He opined that Chimaev was prone to catching cold and cough very quickly and also his body reacted very differently to intense training. So Gustafsson opined that Chimaev would fall sink when training increased.

Well, fans can only hope that nothing spoils the much-anticipated UFC 308 clash as Chimaev will make a comeback after 11 months. But coming back to his threat of sending Whittaker to the ICU, here’s what MMA fans had to say.

UFC fans make fun of Khamzat Chimaev for trash-talking against Whittaker!

Now, Chimaev quickly deleted the X post he made, but it was too late. It had already made its way to Reddit and fans wouldn’t leave a single chance to ridicule him with regards to his medical history.

• “I assume it means he’s being admitted to an Intensive Care Unit soon.“
• “Its a hint that he’ll be at the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) soon, probably caught another cold.”
• “Hopefully not the hospital again.”

Let us not forget that Borz also withdrew from fighting Leon Edwards in 2021 because of COVID-19 and drew in a lot of criticism. Such withdrawals seem like a norm at this point. Yes, Chimaev’s 13-0 record is admirable but his health woes, something he has no control over, have been one of the biggest blocks in his path to superstardom.

One fan commented, “If rob fight with a bad cold is an instant win.”

‘The Reaper’, 26-7, is coming off two back-to-back wins against Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov

Another fan referenced Khamzat Chimaev’s past controversy, commenting, “don’t worry brotha just buy smesh coin,” referring to an incident in July when Chimaev promoted a controversial cryptocurrency called ‘Smash,’ named after his famous tagline. The coin allegedly caused losses for fans who invested in it and was promoted by ‘Borz’ himself.

Although Chimaev later cleared his name and proved his innocence regarding the controversy, it seems the issue still cast a shadow over him in the comments.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming middleweight fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker? Do you think ‘Borz’ will emerge victorious and silence his critics? Drop your opinion below.