The UFC’s inaugural event in Saudi Arabia took a big hit last week when middleweight star Khamzat Chimaev withdrew from his scheduled main event against Robert Whittaker.
UFC middleweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev, has once again hit a roadblock in his pursuit of the title after withdrawing from the biggest fight of his career thus far.
The Chechen was supposed to be taking on former middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event this coming weekend but a few days ago, UFC CEO, Dana White, announced that he was out due to medical issues.
Fortunately, the promotion managed to find a replacement in Ikram Aliskerov, who will be stepping in to fight Whittaker in the main event.
Dana White comments on Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC Saudi Arabia withdrawal
‘Borz’ last fought at UFC 294 in October last year, narrowly beating late-notice step-in, Kamaru Usman, over a three-round decision. Since then, he hasn’t fought as he continues to run into issues acquiring a visa to compete in the States.
Following his win over Usman, the promotion booked him in a number-one contender fight against ‘The Reaper’ with the winner likely securing a title shot at 185lbs.
The 30-year-old has previously withdrawn from two fights against current welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, because of ongoing medical issues.
UFC boss, Dana White, has admitted that they still don’t know what Chimaev’s ongoing health issues are and explained the reasoning for canceling his fight.
“The problem is we really don’t know (what his health issues are),” White told Jim Rome.
“Every time (Chimaev) gets close to a fight, I saw video footage of him on the ground, violently ill and he was hospitalized again. He hadn’t trained for three or four days, we could not put him into a fight next weekend,” White added.
White went on to admit that it is hard to deal with Chimaev’s health issues because he lives in a different country, so he can’t have doctors look at him.
“Lately it’s been hard to get him into the Octagon, every time he gets close to fighting he gets really sick, I don’t know what to say. It’s not like he’s over here (in America) and we can have doctors look at him or anything like that, he’s out of touch so it’s tough to deal with,” the boss stated.
Dana White claims nobody wanted to fight Ikram Aliskerov
Ikram Aliskerov was supposed to be fighting this past weekend against Antonio Trocoli at the UFC Apex but answered the call to fight the number three-ranked middleweight instead.
The Russian striker has only fought twice since earning a contract with a win on Dana White’s Contender Series last year and has seemingly struggled to find fights.
Aliskerov’s only professional loss came against Chimaev back in 2019, with ‘Borz’ scoring a brutal first-round knockout.
White has claimed that it has been a struggle to find fights for the 31-year-old Russian as everyone in the division has turned down the opportunity to fight him.
“Who wants to fight (Aliskerov) on short notice, only Robert Whittaker. We literally offered (Aliskerov) to everybody in the division, we were trying to get this guy fights, but nobody wanted to fight him,” White said.
- NO RETIREMENT: Khamzat Chimaev’s manager adamant ‘Borz’ will not hang up the gloves after pulling out of Robert Whittaker clash