UFC fighter Chimaev, who won, asked Kadyrov to “fight for Palestine”

Khamzat Chimaev, a mixed martial artist of Chechen origin who emigrated to the UAE, defeated his opponent Kamara Usman over at the UFC 294 tournament in Abu Dhabi. After the tournament, he turned to Kadyrov and said that he was “ready to be the first to go to Palestine” to “die for the Muslim brothers.” Kavkaz.Realii writes about it.

Ramzan Kadyrov reacted to Chimaev’s words, calling his speech “touching”. The head of Chechnya said that the fighter spoke “in support of all the peoples who today are in an oppressed position” and “resolutely condemned the violence against the residents of the Gaza Strip.” At the same time, he did not comment on his request to leave “to fight for Palestine”. Earlier, Kadyrov repeatedly condemned Israel for its strikes on the Gaza Strip. He did not comment on the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Khamzat Chimaev defeated Usman by decision of the majority of judges, while the results of the fight caused controversy. The famous Irish fighter Conor McGregor said that Chimaev did not deserve the middleweight title, because he was supposed to meet the Brazilian Paulo Costo in the ring that day. The latter was removed from the fight due to an injury: at one of the tournaments, pop-MMA fighter Shovkhan Churchaev pounced on him.

Chimaev went to battle with Usman to the song of the Chechen poet Timur Mutsuraev, who wrote about the struggle for freedom of Chechnya during the war with Russia, sports.ru notes. At the same time, users of social networks are regularly tried in Russia for listening to Mutsuraev’s songs, including in Chechnya, 30 of them are classified as extremist materials.

In the main fight of the UFC 294 tournament in Abu Dhabi, the Russian Islam Makhachev, a native of Dagestan, defeated the Australian Alexander Volkanovsky, thereby defending the title of UFC lightweight champion. The fight ended with a knockout already in the first round.

The Russian’s opponent at the tournament in Abu Dhabi was supposed to be Charles Oliveira, but on October 11 it became known that the Brazilian will not be able to play the match due to an injury. After the match, Makhachev also spoke in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In Dagestan, spontaneous street celebrations arose in a number of places after his victory.

• Chimaev was born in Chechnya, emigrated to Sweden at the age of 18. He was repeatedly criticized for his relations with the head of Chechnya. In the winter, Chimaev trained the sons of the head of Chechnya, including Adam Kadyrov, who recently found himself in the center of attention due to his beating in the pre-trial detention center of Nikita Zhuravel, accused of burning the Koran. Chimaev himself spoke of his relationship with Kadyrov as follows: “If the king tells me to come and have lunch with him, I will do so.”
• In October 2022, Swedish UFC fighter of Chechen origin Khamzat Chimaev and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s brother Abubakar fought in Abu Dhabi. Before that, Khamzat Chimaev and Abubakar Nurmagomedov repeatedly exchanged rude statements on social networks after Chimaev promised to “break” Khabib if he “wants”. However, a few days later, Abubakar Nurmagomedov called Chimaev a “Muslim brother”.
• Despite the fact that both Chechen sports clubs and the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, are under US sanctions due to systematic human rights violations and support for the war in Ukraine, American MMA fighters continue to come to Grozny.