Khamzat Chimaev on returning to the Octagon: ‘I am still here, unfortunately for my opponents’
Khamzat Chimaev is excited to fight again.
After Chimaev was forced out of his Leon Edwards main event on March 13 due to lingering effects of COVID-19, he announced his retirement from the sport. However, he recently revealed he is back and discussed his time dealing with the virus as he says he thought he had cancer after he was coughing up blood.
“Those were emotional words. I was sick for two months and could not recover from that,” Chimaev said RT Sport. “It was too long… I was feeling sick, stressed by the fact that I could not fight, could not even train. That’s why I posted it. It wasn’t like I gave my word that I would retire. I said, ‘Maybe it’s over for me.’ Maybe it’s over, maybe it’s not. I don’t know. We don’t know what the Almighty has prepared for us. Maybe I will die tomorrow. Maybe something will happen to my opponent and the fight will be postponed. Everything at the will of the Almighty…
“I was doing good at first, then they told me I could start cardio training and I felt sick again. I went to the bathroom and started coughing up blood. That just messed up my mind a bit. Honestly, it scared me… Cancer? Like, I have been sick for so long, why doesn’t it go away? Different thoughts were going through my mind, plus I was alone there in Las Vegas, struggling to overcome it all.”
As of right now, Khamzat Chimaev is targeting a summer return and says after Ramadan he will be back at 100 percent. With that, he says he feels bad for future opponents given he is back and fighting again.
“Some people die because of that disease, but I didn’t,” Chimaev said. “I am still here, unfortunately for my opponents.”
