There appears to be good reason why
Khamzat
Chimaev was left out of the middleweight title picture at the
beginning of the year.
In addition to
suffering a torn ligament in his hand in his hand during a
victory over
Kamaru
Usman at UFC 294, Chimaev revealed that he was recently “very
sick” in a since-deleted post on social media.
“I was very sick, my hand was injured, so I couldn’t return right
away,” Chimaev wrote in the translated post, which was accompanied
by several concerning images. “I want to tell all the fountains, I
want to see myself in battle more than all of you. I love this job.
I will do and prove that I am the best, as always we do, and I will
be back soon to Insha’Allal training.”
While Chimaev appeared to be a leading candidate to face reigning
middleweight champion
Sean
Strickland following his triumph at UFC 294, Strickland’s
manager said that Chimaev
wasn't discussed as a potential option. Instead, Strickland is
slated to face
Dricus Du
Plessis in the
UFC 297
headliner on Jan. 20 in Toronto.
After deleting the initial post, Chimaev took on a more optimistic
tone in a subsequent video.
“I’m coming back for my belt,” he said.