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We recently got a peak behind the curtain of the UFC’s fight booking apparatus and their struggles to find a headlining fight for the centennial UFC 300 PPV card this coming April. It’s a night that Dana White has promised will wow fans from start to finish with electric matchmaking from the opening prelim all the way to the main evnet.
At the moment, the world’s largest MMA promotion has announced 11 bouts for the card, including a women’s strawweight title fight between Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan and a BMF title fight between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway. But, as of yet, there’s been no word of an official headliner. Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall both announced that they had been asked to take the spot, but Jones declined the offer and Aspinall says Stipe Miocic turned down an opportunity to take him on.
Khamzat Chimaev says no to UFC 300
Following those revelations, MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani threw a little grist into the rumor mill. According to conversations he’d had with various industry insiders, the UFC was working to book any one of four potential fights: Khamzat Chimaev vs. Leon Edwards, Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dricus du Plessis, or Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya.
If that was enough to get fans hyped once again, it didn’t take long for another harsh dose of reality to kill the vibe. Shortly after Helwani’s report, Chimaev released a statement to MMA Uncensored; a resounding denial of any intention to fight on the April 13th card.
“I will fight everybody,” Chimaev explained (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Leon [Edwards], [Dricus] du Plessis, anyone, but not [during] Ramadan. I think Ramadan [is during] UFC 300.
“Maybe somebody in Saudi Arabia. I want to fight there. Not fighting in Ramadan anymore.”
Alongside the concerns over fighting too near Ramadan, it has to be noted that Chimaev has also recently been struggling to get a visa for travel to the US. Likely, in part, owing to his seemingly increasingly close relationship with Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.
“The thing is, Chimaev doesn’t have Swedish passport,” his coach Alan Nascimento explained back in October of last year. “He’s not a Swedish citizen. He never was. He has a Russian passport. With this situation going on, the war, it’s hard for anyone to travel around the world with a Russian passport. Especially for a Chechen.
“I won’t go into details, but anyone who knows the story and is following what’s going on in the world knows that everybody is trying to corner Russia with sanctions. He’s living that. That’s one of the reasons why he chose to leave Sweden. Like, ‘I fight for the country, I live there since I was a teenager and pay taxes, and I always apply for a citizenship, but never get it.’”
Chimaev training the Kadyrov children
Back in late 2022, around the same time as the mysterious disappearance (and reported death) of former UFC light heavyweight and noted Kadyrov inner circle member Abdul Kerim Edilov, Khamzat Chimaev began appearing in more social media featuring the Chechen dictator and his kids.
Chimaev attended UFC 280 with the family, and still regularly posts pictures of himself hanging out with Kadyrov’s sons both in and out of the gym. He dropped this post with Dustum Kadyrov just last week on Instagram.
Chimaev last fought on US soil back in September of 2022, taking a submission victory over Kevin Holland in a hastily rearranged fight card after ‘Borz’ missed the welterweight limit by nearly 10 pounds for a planned fight with Nate Diaz.
Since then, and despite repeatedly claiming that he’s been healthy, training, and ready for action, Chimaev has only fought once, against Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. Given all that, it’s something of a shock that the UFC thought they could book him for UFC 300 at all, main event or no. For now it seems likely that Chimaev will have to limit his fights to international events, and the UFC’s desperate search for a massive main event battle will have to continue.
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