Khamzat Chimaev declines Kyle Snyder challenge for RAF
Khamzat Chimaev will not wrestle Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder in RAF.
The UFC middleweight champion, who signed with the wrestling promotion recently and defends his title against Sean Strickland at UFC 328 this weekend, told Adam Zubayraev on YouTube that competing against elite Olympic wrestlers falls outside the scope of what he wants to do in RAF. “How does it make sense to wrestle an Olympic champion?” Chimaev said, per MMA Fighting. “What’s the point? If I wanted to wrestle Snyder or [Abdulrashid] Sadulaev, I would’ve gone to the Olympics.”
Chimaev open to Bo Nickal match instead
Chimaev specified that former NCAA champion Bo Nickal, now an active UFC middleweight, would make sense as an RAF opponent. “I could grapple with Bo Nickal,” he said, according to MMA Mania. “He switched to MMA, too, he’s an MMA fighter now. It’s interesting to compete with fighters who are in MMA.” Chimaev acknowledged the vast technical gap between wrestling for MMA and wrestling at the Olympic level, noting he has not drilled traditional wrestling entries in years. “I didn’t spend years in the gym doing thousands and thousands of double-leg entries,” he said.
Snyder had called out Chimaev after the UFC champion posted on Twitter offering $200,000 to any Olympic wrestler who could survive a sparring session. The three-time world champion told MMA Fighting he understands Chimaev’s position but remains interested in a future match. “I love his competitive mentality. He just wants to dominate everybody,” Snyder said. He suggested Chimaev take a few RAF bouts first before they meet. “I think that before we wrestle, it would probably make sense for him to get some other matches underneath him and then we’ll see.”
Chimaev faces Strickland at UFC 328 in his first middleweight title defense. Snyder competes next at RAF 9 before the World Championships.
Photo: Noah Riffe / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Original reporting:
- mmafighting.com — Khamzat Chimaev declines Olympic champion Kyle Snyder’s challenge; Snyder still hopes to face him in RAF | MMA Fighting
- mmamania.com — Khamzat Chimaev open to wrestle Bo Nickal for RAF, not Kyle Snyder: ‘How can I wrestle an Olympic champion?’ | MMA Mania