Chimaev Sets December Deadline: Fight or a Long Layoff to Fix Injuries

Khamzat Chimaev has given the UFC a clock. If he can't get a fight booked before the end of December, the former middleweight champion says he's stepping away to finally deal with a body he admits is held together by patchwork. That's a notable line from a man whose aura was built on being untouchable — until Sean Strickland took a split decision off him in their title fight at UFC 328 back in May, handing Chimaev the first loss of his professional career.

The urgency is real. Chimaev chased an October date, missed it, and is now pushing for December. He says he asked the promotion to put him on a card in Abu Dhabi and made clear he isn't demanding a title shot — he just wants to fight, get paid, and start clawing back toward the belt. So far, in his telling, the phone hasn't rung.

The Body Is Talking

Chimaev doesn't usually air his medical history, but he opened up here, and it's a grim list: half his thyroid gland gone, seven trips under anesthesia, six surgeries, and a pile of injuries he keeps postponing. He's admitted before that he gets sick often, and by his own account he's walked into every fight carrying some kind of problem. The break, if it comes, isn't a sulk over the Strickland loss. It's maintenance he's been dodging for years.

The Strickland rematch, meanwhile, looks dead. Chimaev campaigned for it right after UFC 328, then went quiet, and now believes Nassourdine Imavov is the man next in line for the champion. He didn't want to sit on the shelf for a year or two waiting on Strickland's recovery, and once he said as much, he reckons the promotion pivoted to Imavov.

Backing Imavov

On that fight, Chimaev is picking against the champ. He rates Imavov as technically superior and hopes the Frenchman has sharpened his striking since their earlier meeting a couple of years back. His read is simple: if Imavov's cardio holds, he out-strikes Strickland; if he fades, it gets ugly. He even threw in a jab that every fighter in the division is better than Strickland — which, given who's holding the belt, is a bold way to frame your own defeat.

The most human line came at the end. Chimaev says he's replayed the loss a thousand times and still can't square it, because before the opening bell he couldn't picture Strickland beating him. That's the crux of where 'Borz' sits right now: a fighter who has to rebuild both the resume and the invincibility myth, and who's telling the UFC he'd rather do it before the year's out than spend it in an operating theatre. If December comes and goes without a name across from him, the surgeries win.