Khamzat Chimaev posted on Instagram the other day that he was retiring from mixed martial arts. However, this has changed in an odd way. The 26-year-old Russian has been suffering from COVID-19 for several months and he had postponed his return to the Octagon.
Chimaev posted on Instagram, translated through the service that he was retiring.
The translation via Yahoo! Sports as obtained via the translate function.
“I want to say thank you to everyone for their support in my path in this sport,” he wrote in Russian. “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. I want to say a huge thank you [to the UFC].”
He also posted on his IG stories of what appeared to be blood that he had coughed up.
Chimaev tested positive for COVID-19 in January and his fight with Leon Edwards was delayed to March. It was then postponed again due to the complications from the virus. According to Dana White Chimaev is in Las Vegas receiving treatment.
Although the news of his retirement started to make its rounds, Dana White dismissed the speculation stating that he’d be back in June according to a tweet from MMA Junkie’s John Morgan. He noted that he is on a steroid to address the virus and while he is supposed to take it easy Chimaev went in and trained. It was at this point that White said Chimaev felt emotional and posted the comments about retirement.
On Tuesday, a post from Ramzan Kadyrov of the Chechen Republic surfaced which confirmed that Chimaev was not retiring.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, posted on his IG this morning that he spoke to Khamzat Chimaev and essentially convinced him to not retire. “He remains and will fight to the end,” the post states, per the IG translator. (h/t @wwlmma) pic.twitter.com/aI0HEX1QIB
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 2, 2021
Payout Perspective:
One has to feel for Chimaev at this point. He was a top prospect with high hopes. The coronavirus has really affected him and it now feels like he is being pushed to compete. It is combat sports and at 26-years-old, we may expect a return to MMA for Chimaev even if he was not pushed into it by White and Kadyrov. But, the level of influence that outsiders have on this young man’s career seems pushing it. If Chimaev truly cannot physically continue to fight, he should not be forced to do it or guilted into having to put his body on the line. Yet, this is big time sports where people make money over the commodity and its likely that we’ll see his return regardless of how he feels about it.
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