Khamzat Chimaev defeated Kamaru Usman via majority decision at UFC 294. Chimaev won the first round convincingly according to all three judges. However, he struggled in the next two rounds. ‘Borz’ explained that his dominant first round came at a cost. He suffered a painful injury on his right hand which made the next two rounds difficult. However, this also affects Dana White‘s plans of keeping Chimaev more active.
Following a 10-8 first-round win, Chimaev and Usman fought an almost even battle in the next two rounds. However, two judges felt that Chimaev won the bout overall 29-27, whereas, one judge scored the bout 28-28.
During his post-fight media duties, according to EuroSport, Chimaev opened up about his difficulties after the first round, “I think I broke my hand. It was hard to wrestle and keep him down. I couldn’t use my right hand. We’ll see what happens. Maybe it’s broken, maybe it’s not. But it’s f****** painful.”
Khamzat Chimaev says he was compromised by a hand injury vs. Kamaru Usman 🤕
Full story: https://t.co/cHXI0Kwcnj pic.twitter.com/CxgycHHiuB
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) October 22, 2023
Similarly, he even informed TNT Sports, “I dominated the guy first round. In the first round, last minute, I think I broke my hand. It was hard to wrestle and keep him down, but I couldn’t use my right hand, so we’ll see what’s happening.”
This plays spoilsport for UFC CEO White’s plans of keeping Chimaev more active. Since September 2020, Chimaev has fought only five times in three years. His last fight took place over a year ago against Kevin Holland at UFC 279.
Dana White says the UFC needs to keep Khamzat Chimaev “more active” and is hopeful Chimaev can fight for the middleweight title 🏆 #UFC294 pic.twitter.com/z61giDOxui
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) October 21, 2023
White has hoped for Chimaev’s injury to not be serious. He wants the Chechen-born fighter to be ready soon for a Middleweight title bout against Sean Strickland.
Khamzat Chimaev is grateful to UFC and Dana White for giving him the opportunity to fight
Chimaev gave a heartfelt speech after his victory over Usman at UFC 294. He was extremely grateful to the UFC for giving him the opportunity to showcase his talent. He said, “Dana [White] and Hunter [Campbell], thank you for everything. I was in the gym. A small room, two meters. All I wanted was just better training stuff… I didn’t have food, it’s because of these I am who I am today.”
Khamzat Chimaev is grateful in victory 🙏@KChimaev#UFC294 pic.twitter.com/Q5RDHzlv44
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) October 21, 2023
He was very emotional during his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier. He even saw Swedish soccer legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the crowd and thanked him for coming to support him. Chimaev has represented Sweden in several world competitions. He even opened up about the condition of the world as he asked for the atrocities to stop between Israel and Palestine.
The extent of Chimaev’s injury is still unknown. He will take further tests and the MMA world will be informed about it accordingly.