Khamzat Chimaev has revealed that he’ll be undergoing surgery in the near future due to an injury he suffered during his last victory in the Octagon.
Chimaev dominated Kamaru Usman in the opening round of their fight at UFC 294 in October, but wasn’t able to maintain that momentum in the rounds that followed, although he still emerged with a majority decision victory.
Afterwards the 29-year-old revealed that he’d injured his hand during the opening round, and it was later confirmed to have been due to a torn ligament, which now requires surgery.
“I’m going to do a surgery, operation in one, two weeks,” Chimaev told fans during an Instagram Live chat. “After that, do the recovery, come back, smash somebody.”
Chimaev’s injury appeared to push him out of competing for the middleweight title against current champion Sean Strickland next, with Dricus du Plessis having recently been announced as the next challenger for the belt.
However, there’s plenty of other big fights out there for Chimaev at 185lbs, and though it’s not clear exactly how long it will take him to recover from his upcoming surgery, he signalled an interest in fighting at UFC 300 in April.
“Tell Dana White (to) make that happen,” told a fan.
