Frontkick manager Majdi Shammas counts UFC star Khamzat Chimaev among his clients. On Friday, he revealed just how severe the fighter’s bout with COVID-19 has been.
In a video posted to Frontkick’s official Youtube channel, Shammas discusses the decision to pull out of the Leon Edwards fight once again. The pair had been scheduled to headline the UFC’s March 13 event.
“I emailed the UFC yesterday. Very unfortunate email. Those are the emails we don’t like to send,” Shammas stated. “But it is what it is and there’s nothing we can do. We tried to come back this Tuesday. He insisted that he wanted to train. Then we tried and it failed. He was really bad, you know?”
Chimaev, he continued, “didn’t even do two rounds straight. He did one round and then rested. He started coughing, he started feeling ill again, and we had to cancel the training.”
Things then took a turn for the worse. “He even went to the ambulance, to the hospital.”
According to Shammas (and backed up by comments by UFC President Dana White), Khamzat Chimaev’s team has been in touch with the UFC’s doctors.
Shammas also revealed that there’s a plan to take a CT scan of the fighter’s chest. “He complained that he had some chest pains after the training, so we’re gonna check the heart as well,” said Shammas. “We have been in and out of hospitals so many times now. Nowadays, lately, the last weeks it’s crazy. The other day, when he finished the training on Tuesday, he couldn’t even walk up to his room. He didn’t even have the energy to go up to his room. [He] fell asleep in the lobby.”
“He can’t train,” Shammas continued. At one point, the manager received a call from Chimaev’s friends. They reported the fighter was unable to speak. “His fever is so high, his headache is so much, muscle pain and everything. Then an ambulance came and got him to the hospital. Even when he was in the hospital, he called me, when he called me he thought he was going to die. It was really bad.”
Chimaev also developed bronchitis, and was placed on antibiotics.
The news contradicts the tone taken Friday by UFC President Dana White, who downplayed the severity of Khamzat Chimaev’s case. Asked about whether there should be concern over Chimaev’s condition in a media scrum, White replied “Nah. If you know this guy’s mentality, he probably didn’t listen, probably didn’t do what he was supposed to do. Definitely not getting the best health care he could possibly get. We’re going to try to get him out here, get him with some real doctors, get him taken care of, and get him set again.”
