UFC star Khamzat Chimaev doesn't anticipate that he'll be making an appearance on next summer's planned UFC White House card.
For the longest time, it was unclear as to whether or not Khamzat Chimaev would ever be able to fight again the US. We had heard plenty of rumors and reports regarding why that was the case, but now, the issue appears to have been solved. On Saturday night, 'Borz' will challenge Dricus du Plessis for the UFC middleweight championship - and he'll do so in Chicago, Illinois.
There's a lot of excitement in the air for this fight, as you can expect, and Khamzat Chimaev is considered by many to be the favorite. As previously mentioned, next year we will see the UFC put on a huge card at the White House. As you can imagine, plenty of fighters are eager to be part of that card.
Khamzat Chimaev, though, seems to believe that he isn't destined to be part of the equation.
Khamzat Chimaev doesn’t expect to fight at White House
“This wasn’t my bad. This wasn’t my fault,” Chimaev said about not fighting in the United States during an open workout interview with MMA Fighting on Wednesday. “Everyone knows I didn’t have the visa to the U.S. That’s why I didn’t fight only once in Abu Dhabi. So now Donald Trump is here, we go for a fight.”
“Look at my face. I don’t think so,” Chimaev said with a smile when asked about fighting at the White House. “They [would deport me] to an immigrant camp or whatever. I’m an athlete, a sportsman, all my life I’ve been training. Some people put me in a position like political shit and break my visa down and I don’t know why. I’m just doing for my family — fighting, training. Athletes don’t have to be with politics. I’m not connected.
“If somebody wants to meet me, I never say no. Why should they do that? It’s putting a lot of athletes in a bad position with this. This is a sport that [brings] all the guys together, [brings] all countries together but they want to do some different ways. I don’t know why. I would be happy if they give me a fight there but I don’t think so.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting
