Dana White has admitted that it’s been tough to deal with Khamzat Chimaev’s ongoing medical issues in recent times after the star was forced to pull out of his headlining fight against Robert Whittaker at UFC On ABC 6 this weekend.
“The problem is we really don’t know [what’s wrong],” White told The Jim Rome Show. “Every time this guy gets close to a fight, I saw video footage of him on the ground violently ill. He was hospitalized again. He hadn’t trained for three or four days or five days, I don’t know exactly what the number was but we could not put him into a fight next weekend.”
Chimaev had previously had a battle with Long Covid back in December of 2020 that kept him out of action for much of the following year, while early this year he was hospitalized again due to a mystery illness.
Now he’s been back in hospital again in recent days, with his management claiming that the undefeated star had been “in and out of hospital several times,” during his latest training camp due to a “persistent illness.”
Meanwhile, White says it’s been difficult to get to the bottom of the situation since Chimaev isn’t receiving treatment in the U.S.
“Every time he gets close to fighting, he gets really sick. I don’t know [how long he’s going to be out]. I don’t know what to say. It’s not like he’s over here in this country and we’ve had doctors here look at him or anything like that. He’s sort of out of touch so it’s tough to deal with.”
