The UFC champ who sold his soul
Khamzat Chimaev’s story is no longer that of a fearless contender rising to greatness, but of a gifted fighter diminished into a warlord’s prized pet—a UFC champ who sold his soul to the strongman.
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Less than 48 hours after seizing the UFC middleweight crown at UFC 319 in August 2025, Khamzat Chimaev touched down in Chechnya to a reception fit for a conquering hero. As he emerged from the plane in Grozny, crowds swarmed the fighter on the tarmac, chanting the name of the republic’s first UFC champion. But amid the celebration stood a figure whose presence carried far more weight than the adoring fans: Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord who has governed Chechnya with an iron fist.
Moments after stepping off the plane, the new champion handed his UFC belt directly to Kadyrov, who raised it before cameras and reporters like a political trophy before passing it to his 17-year-old son, Adam. “He handed me the belt he won in battle, and with this gesture emphasized that his victory is a common victory of our people,” Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Waiting nearby was a brand-new Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 in which Chimaev departed the airport under escort. The car costed upwards of $𝟏𝟖𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎—a reward fit for Kadyrov’s favourite fighter.
Over the past several years, the Chechen-born Chimaev has become the crown jewel of Kadyrov’s carefully cultivated MMA empire, regularly appearing in photographs alongside the strongman and his family. In return for his loyalty, Kadyrov has lavished the fighter with extravagant rewards: fleets of Mercedes luxury cars, an expansive villa in Grozny, and even arranged Chimaev’s marriage in 2022.
It was a remarkable trajectory for a fighter who was once just a poor refugee living in Sweden. In 2017, a month after his professional MMA debut, Chimaev was convicted of assault. He was charged after punching an employee in the face when he and his companion were accused of stealing a pair of headphones. Chimaev fled the scene but was later apprehended by the police. He was found guilty and received a suspended sentence with 50 hours of community service.
By 2020, however, Chimaev was a breakout star in the UFC. His quick knockout victories drew the attention of Kadyrov, who took him under his wing and elevated the fighter to his coveted inner circle. He also took charge of Chimaev’s career. When the UFC fighter attempted to retire after contracting Covid-19, Kadyrov insisted that he continue to compete. In 2022, Kadyrov filmed one of his sparring sessions with Chimaev. During the session, Chimaev allowed Kadyrov to take him down and pretended to tap out when the warlord choked him out.
“I myself could not resist the temptation to test my strength in a friendly duel with our dear brother,” Kadyrov said in the caption that accompanied the video.
Chimaev has also taken on the role of glorified babysitter to Kadyrov’s children. The UFC fighter trained Ali, one of Kadyrov’s sons, ahead of his professional debut in December 2022 and brought him along to training camps with some of the UFC’s top fighters in places like Dubai and Thailand. Ali and his brother Adam were in Chimaev’s corner at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi and again at UFC 308, also in Abu Dhabi.
While Chimaev’s subservience to Kadyrov and his family has elevated him to one of the most influential and recognizable figures in Chechnya, it also complicated his path to international stardom.
In 2024, I reported exclusively for Sports Politika that Chimaev was barred from entering the United States, primarily due to his relationship with Kadyrov, who’s long faced U.S. sanctions. In 2020, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Kadyrov’s fight club and MMA promotion — the first time a country had targeted his sports investments. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, OFAC stated that Kadyrov had “recruited for Russia’s war efforts through mixed martial arts clubs, enabling him and his units to continue their activity in Ukraine.” In response to the invasion, the State Department imposed visa restrictions on 910 Russians. While the list was never made public, sources close to the matter have suggested that Chimaev’s name was among those included.
Chimaev would have likely continued fighting in Abu Dhabi had Trump not won the 2024 presidential race. The U.S. President is a fan of the UFC, whose leadership and fighters helped him win back the White House. It comes as no surprise that Trump would put an end to Chimaev’s visa troubles as a favor to UFC CEO Dana White and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, his former agent.
In an interview with the BBC, the Chechen fighter credited Trump for his ability to return to the UFC. “Everyone knows I didn’t have the visa to [travel to] the US. That’s why I didn’t fight only once [but twice] in Abu Dhabi. So now Donald Trump is here, we go for a fight,” he explained.
The irony of the situation shouldn’t be lost on anyone: while Trump was busy deporting migrants (and some U.S. residents) through ICE raids, he sidestepped visa restrictions imposed by his own government to allow a UFC fighter representing a sanctioned dictator to compete on U.S. soil. It is yet another example of the textbook cronyism of the Trump administration—an era rooted in corporate favours and regulatory green lights for those willing to play along.
And though Chimaev publicly fawns over Kadyrov, it is impossible to know whether that loyalty is heartfelt or coerced. To many Chechen dissidents, Chimaev is a traitor—a fighter who sold his soul in exchange for a place in Kadyrov’s inner circle. He flaunts his newfound wealth on social media, regularly posing alongside his fleet of cars in the UAE. He boasts friendships with Kadyrov’s teenage sons, and even—according to reports from the Chechen dissident group NIYSO—recently took on a second wife in Chechnya, this time a 17-year-old girl who was reportedly forced into the marriage.
“According to sources, on January 11th, a wedding ceremony took place in the village of Elin-Yurt, during which a local woman was given to Chimaev as a wife,” read a portion of the report. “However, a few days before the celebration, the girl was kidnapped by Chimaev’s friends, as she had caught the fighter’s eye. The court gladiator immediately rushed to Kadyrov’s residence to seek advice from his padishah [Chechen for “king”]. In response, he instructed him to hold a wedding ceremony, but as secretly as possible.”
Despite reportedly kidnapping and marrying an underage woman—which is also illegal across the Russian Federation—and operating as a propagandist for a strongman who oppresses his people and purges the republic LGBTQ+ population, the UFC has no qualms with featuring Chimaev atop their fight cards. They promote him like a star and have gone out of their way to ensure that he continued to fight for the organization even when he was barred from entering the United States. To make matters worse, Chimaev’s upcoming title defence is against Sean Strickland, a former neo-Nazi who is among the UFC’s most bigoted and misogynistic fighters—and that’s truly saying something.
As for Chimaev, his story is no longer that of a fearless contender rising to greatness, but of a gifted fighter diminished into a warlord’s prized possession — a UFC champion who sold his soul to the Chechen strongman.
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Thank you Karim for this reporting. This UFC main event now makes me even more sick to my stomach. I may not even watch it now.
I used to be such a chimaev fan : thank you for your very good work