Khamzat Chimaev issues $200K challenge to ‘any Olympic champion’ wrestler

Khamzat Chimaev is confident in his wrestling skills. |
Getty/UFC

Khamzat
Chimaev has put a bounty on himself. Chimaev recently signed
with Real American Freestyle, which has been making waves in
wrestling. Meanwhile, 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Kyle Snyder
defended his RAF light heavyweight title against Rizabek Aitmukhan
at RAF 8 on Saturday. Snyder subsequently expressed interest in a
wrestling bout against Chimaev at RAF. 

Chimaev (15-0) has since seemingly taken a dig at Snyder’s callout.
“Borz” is scheduled to defend his
UFC middleweight title against Sean
Strickland (30-7) at UFC 328
on May 9 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Chimaev
says that while “poor” wrestlers are calling him out, he is facing
difficulty finding sparring partners for his fight camp against
Strickland. Apparently responding to Snyder, the undefeated
Chechen-born has offered $200,000 to any Olympic champion who can
survive against him in sparring.

Call for Sparring Partners

“Poor wrestlers started throwing challenges my way, I’m having
trouble finding sparring partners, waiting for any Olympic champion
to step up for sparring—if he survives, I’ll give him [$200,000],”
Chimaev wrote on X.

Chimaev is widely considered one of the most dominant wrestlers in
the history of MMA. Chimaev dominated Dricus Du
Plessis for five rounds at
UFC 319 last year to win the middleweight title.