Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov personally welcomed the new UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev at Grozny airport, gifting him a luxury car.
Chimaev won the championship belt by defeating South African fighter Dricus du Plessis in Chicago. It was the first title victory for a fighter of Chechen origin in the history of the UFC. During the fight, Chimaev also set a new UFC record for the number of significant strikes in a single fight — 529. The previous record belonged to American fighter Max Holloway, who in 2021 delivered 447 strikes.
Published footage shows Kadyrov greeting Chimaev at the aircraft stairs. Chimaev disembarked the plane carrying the UFC championship belt, while Kadyrov was shown wearing a T-shirt with the image of a wolf, Chimaev’s name, and his nickname Borz (wolf in Chechen). Chechen Prime Minister Magomed Daudov and other officials were also present at the meeting.
During the greeting, Kadyrov handed Chimaev the keys to a Maybach car. According to regional news agencies, the car was purchased by the Akhmat-Hadzhi Kadyrov Regional Public Foundation. Video footage of the meeting showed that the car is a GLS 600 — a 2025 model starts at almost $180,000.
‘I was one hundred percent sure of Khamzat Chimaev’s victory. I never doubted it. Nevertheless, I worried, prayed for his victory and proudly watched his fight’, Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram channel.
He also added that Chimaev quickly won the championship belt and proved to the whole world that ‘Akhmat is Power’.
The Maybach was not the first gift from Kadyrov to Chimaev. In October 2023, Chimaev said he had received three Mercedes cars in Chechnya, and after his victory over Kamaru Usman, he was given another one.
Chimaev was born in Chechnya and moved with his family to Sweden as a teenager. In September 2023, he began representing the United Arab Emirates — he obtained Emirati citizenship in February 2025.
Chimaev has close ties to the Kadyrov family: he has trained Kadyrov’s sons, and in 2022, Kadyrov took part in reconciling the fighter with Abubakar Nurmagomedov, the brother of undefeated Daghestani UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, after a conflict at a UFC tournament in Abu Dhabi. Chimaev has previously said that Kadyrov persuaded him not to end his career because of health problems.
Chimaev has more than 10.3 million followers on Instagram. Many of his posts express support for Kadyrov. He has repeatedly referred to Kadyrov as a ‘padishah’, or king, and publicly thanked him.
Chimaev last competed in the US on 10 September 2022. After visa restrictions were introduced, he fought only in Abu Dhabi. UFC-319 was his first return to the American octagon in almost three years. According to reports, this was possible because UFC president Dana White, who personally lobbied for Chimaev’s presence, had actively supported President Donald Trump during his election campaign.
Throughout his career, Chimaev has fought 14 professional MMA bouts, winning all of them. Nine of those victories came by knockout or submission. He made his UFC debut in 2020, immediately attracting attention with quick wins. In July of that year, Chimaev fought twice in ten days, beating John Phillips and Rhys McKee — a UFC record.
He later secured a notable win over Gerald Meerschaert, knocking him out in 17 seconds. In 2022, at UFC-273, Chimaev defeated Gilbert Burns in a fight that was ranked among the best of the year.
In May 2022, Chimaev’s wedding was held in Chechnya and widely covered by Chechen media. Kadyrov attended the celebration and roads in central Grozny were closed for the wedding cortege.
In January 2025, social media users reported a second wedding for the fighter. According to the opposition movement NIYSO, the bride was only 17 years old and had been abducted.
Elizaveta Chukharova
