Dana White has cast doubt regarding the potential return of Khamzat Chimaev: “I don’t know how this is going to play out”
UFC President Dana White is no longer fully optimistic that fight fans will get to see Khamzat Chimaev compete inside the Octagon again.
Chimaev (9-0 MMA) has been one of the many unfortunate victims of the global pandemic and due to lingering symptoms, has been unable to compete since the fall of 2020.
Following his 17-second knockout win over Gerald Meerschaert in September, ‘Borz’ was booked to fight top welterweight contender Leon Edwards. However, after three slated bookings with ‘Rocky’ failed to come to fruition, the UFC ultimately moved on from the bout.
Dana White recently flew Khamzat Chimaev out to Las Vegas so that the fighter could receive the best medical treatment possible. That move originally seemed to be paying dividends, as Chimaev soon shared photos of himself and Dana with the message “See you in June”.
However, just days after posting the positive updates, Chimaev shocked fans by announcing his retirement from mixed martial arts.
UFC President Dana White was quick to refute Khamzat’s retirement claims.
“When he got here, the doctors took care of him, and they put him on prednisone, which is a nasty f*cking steroid,” White told MMA Junkie. “So he’s on prednisone, and he’s supposed to be taking this thing and chilling, relaxing, and letting himself recover. He went in and f*cking trained today, felt like sh*t, and got super emotional and posted that. He’s not supposed to be training, but you know, this guy’s a savage. He wants to fight like every f*cking weekend, and now he can’t even train, so he just got emotional and posted that, but he ain’t quitting.”
PhotoCred: YouTube – FrontKick.Online
While Dana White was originally very optimistic that Khamzat Chimaev would return, likely this summer, the brash UFC boss has now changed his tune.
“The problem is, the reason that everybody loves him is because the guy is an absolute savage. He wants to fight every weekend. He believes he’ll win the world title right now,” UFC president Dana White told BT Sport (via MMAJunkie). “But the problem with a guy like that is you can’t calm him down. He should be resting right now. He shouldn’t be training at all. He should be resting and recovering, but he won’t do it.”
White continued:
“At the end of the day, he’s a grown man, and we can’t control what he does on a daily basis. I don’t know how this is going to play out. We’ll see.”
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