UFC 308: Unanswered questions may continue to keep Khamzat Chimaev from a title shot

After beating Robert Whittaker in one round at UFC 308, Chimaev’s skill in the cage is unquestionable. But questions about his health, his weight, and his ability to travel remain.

Ryan Harkness breaks down daily mixed martial arts (MMA) news, providing unique context to stories that only 15 years of obsessing over the sport can provide, having worked for FOX Sports, Yahoo! Sports, UPROXX, MSN, Bleacher Report, HDNet and CagePotato, among others, before joining MMAmania.com in 2017.

Khamzat Chimaev made short work of Robert Whittaker at UFC 308, blowing the former UFC champion out of the water with a nasty first round face crank submission. The win has reignited calls for “Borz” to fight for the middleweight title, and hey — we’re very down. Unfortunately, factors outside the cage are likely to prevent him from jumping into a title shot.

The top issue is his health. Chimaev hasn’t been the same since a bad bout of Long Covid that kept him from competing for over a year. While the jury is still out on it’s effect on his cardio in the cage, he’s been unable to continue training as hard as he once did without suffering serious illness. The Chechen fighter was hospitalized in late 2023, and then hospitalized again in June leading to the cancellation of his main event in Saudi Arabia.

That was a particularly important event for the UFC — their first event in Saudi Arabia ever. And that’s an issue: if the promotion can’t rely on Chimaev to make it to fight day, are they going to go out of their way to upturn everything to slot him into the next middleweight title fight?

Chimaev showing up at UFC 308 was great, but don’t be surprised if the UFC needs to see him show up for his next fight as well before he’s given another prime booking. The promotion probably also wants to see him make weight with less drama than we witnessed in Abu Dhabi. As the clock ticked down for fighters to weigh in, reports were flowing that Chimaev was having trouble making weight.

With just 12 minutes left to step on the scales, a tired “Borz” weighed in at 186 pounds — the middleweight limit for a non-title fight. This is a guy who just moved up to middleweight in 2023. It’s not exactly heartening to see him struggle to make weight for his new division.

Last but not least, there’s the issue of Chimaev’s iffy ability to obtain travel visas. We’ve discussed this a lot, so let’s not repeat ourselves. Let’s just call it like it is: right now, Chimaev isn’t able to get a visa to enter America. Can he enter Australia, where the next middleweight title fight may go down? That’s a question Khamzat is looking to answer by booking a trip there for December.

There visa situation could change, at least. The UFC had connections with the Trump administration that helped them smooth over travel issues for fighters. Depending on how the U.S. elections go in November, Chimaev’s issues could magically fade away. There’s also the possibility that “Borz” could end up with a passport from the United Arab Emirates, which opens way more doors than a Russian passport these days.

But that’s the problem with Khamzat Chimaev’s situation right now: everything is a maybe or a possibly. He needs to get to a point where things are definitely and for sure. Until then, he may find a title bout continues to remain just out of reach despite his obvious talent in the cage.