UFC 294: Khamzat Chimaev Suffers A Torn Ligament Injury
In some latest MMA news, Khamzat Chimaev reportedly sustained a torn ligament during his bout with Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 on October 21st, 2023.
The UFC middleweight, however, did come out victorious during the bout as he handed Usman his third straight loss in a row. While Usman managed to last the distance, he ultimately came up short via a majority decision.
The victory was all the more impressive, given the last-minute changes that Chimaev had to deal with. The former had been on course to face Paulo Costa.
Although that may have been the case, the latter ended up withdrawing due to an infection. And yet, the win was ultimately overshadowed by the injury.
Chimaev’s Injury
Chimaev’s manager, Majdi Shammas, confirmed the injury, which will keep the fighter in a brace for the next four weeks. But in doing so, it appears that Chimaev will not require surgery.
Before the fight, there were suggestions that the winner could end up facing Sean Strickland for the right to win the latter’s middleweight belt.
Strickland grabbed the title after overcoming Israel Adesanya via a unanimous decision in a win that shocked the MMA community.
Although that may have been the case, Strickland made it clear that Chimaev did not deserve the title shot due to his lack of activity.
Strickland On Chimaev
“He doesn’t f—ing deserve it, but here we are. Give it to him. He sells a lot of fights. I’ll go f—ing fight the man for five rounds. But no, he has not earned it. Getting a decision over a welterweight off the couch does not f—ing earn it,” Strickland
Nevertheless, Strickland did take some time to praise Chimaev’s opponent Usman. This was on the grounds that the latter had ultimately taken a bout on very short notice.
And given that there could have been grounds for not taking the fight, Strickland did give Usman his props. After all, Alexander Volkanovski had done a similar thing in the main event against Islam Makhachev.
But unlike Usman, the featherweight was stopped in the first round as it became clear that the lack of preparation may have impacted the result.
“I don’t want to sit there and obviously make excuses. Obviously, I’m a big believer in preparation and stuff like that. But I back myself, so that’s the decision I made. I could’ve made better decisions, but he’s not somebody you should be taking a short-notice with. But I needed it. A lot of people will say it’s for the money and all that, but it was much more than that. It was hard. It’s really is hard for athletes. Sorry… I never thought I’d struggle with it, but for some reason when I wasn’t fighting or in camp… sorry [tears up again]… I was just doing my head in. I needed a fight,” Volkanovski stated
Strickland On Usman
With that being said, Strickland praised Usman for managing to see the final bell.
“Kamaru Usman is a gangster. We always knew he was a gangster, but for him to take that fight on short notice, [and] go the distance with Chimaev. And some people were saying, I mean, that first round was definitely 10-8, but let’s pretend it wasn’t, and then Kamaru, well, you give him the next two rounds… he could’ve won that fight. Crazy,” Strickland
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