Khamzat Chimaev: the wrestling nobody saw coming
From freestyle wrestling in Chechnya and Sweden to the UFC middleweight title: where Khamzat Chimaev's grappling comes from, how he controls opponents, what the Strickland loss showed, and what you can take from it on the mat.
Khamzat Chimaev was born on 1 May 1994 in Gvardeyskoye, in Chechnya, and started wrestling at five. At eighteen he moved to Sweden, where he won the national freestyle wrestling championship three times. He only started mixed martial arts at 23. In August 2025 he became UFC middleweight champion, and in May 2026 he lost the title in a close decision. His record is 15 wins and 1 loss.
Where his grappling comes from
Freestyle wrestling is the base of everything Chimaev does. He won the Swedish national title in 2015 and 2016 at 86 kg and in 2018 at 92 kg, the last of them in the year he turned professional in MMA.
Jiu-jitsu came later. He trained it alongside MMA and went up the belts as his career grew. On the night he won the UFC title in August 2025, he was given his black belt in the cage, under Alan “Finfou” Nascimento.
How he fights
Chimaev’s style is simple to describe and very hard to stop: take the opponent down, stay on top, and never let them back up.
The title fight against Dricus du Plessis shows it in numbers. He kept du Plessis under control for 21 minutes and 40 seconds of a 25-minute fight, landed 12 takedowns, and landed 529 strikes in total, a UFC record.
He finishes fights both ways. Of his 15 wins, 6 came by KO/TKO, 6 by submission and 3 on the judges’ scorecards. Among the submissions: a brabo choke against Kevin Holland and a face crank against Robert Whittaker.
The loss to Strickland
In May 2026, at UFC 328, Chimaev lost the title to Sean Strickland by split decision: one judge scored the fight for Chimaev, two for Strickland. All three judges scored it 48–47: two for Strickland and one for Chimaev.
From a grappler’s point of view, the lesson is an old one: control alone doesn’t always win a fight. Judges look at the effect of striking and grappling. Time spent controlling an opponent doesn’t decide a round on its own: damage, real submission threats and what the offence achieves matter.
Back to wrestling
Since the loss, Chimaev has gone back to his roots, competing in freestyle wrestling for Real American Freestyle (RAF). He beat Dillon Danis 10–0, pinned Tyron Woodley and beat Gilbert Burns 15–4. These matches don’t count towards his MMA record. He is scheduled to wrestle Robbie Lawler on 23 October in Las Vegas and Colby Covington on 14 November in Abu Dhabi. No UFC fight is booked yet.
What someone who trains three times a week can take from it
- Learn to start standing. In jiu-jitsu many people sit to guard straight away. Chimaev shows what happens when someone decides where the fight goes from the first second. You don’t need to become a wrestler, but a couple of takedowns and some takedown defence give you a choice.
- Pressure is a skill. Weight helps, but pressure also comes from where your hips are, staying connected, and improving your position one step at a time, so that every escape costs your opponent energy.
- Control has to lead somewhere. Holding a position is the start, not the goal. In training, as in a fight, ask yourself: what am I attacking from here?