VIDEO: Khamzat Chimaev beats down Russian influencer, taking leaf out of Sean Strickland's book despite recent illness
Khamzat Chimaev recently delivered a brutal beatdown on Russian influencer Mikhail Litvin, whose goal was to survive one minute in the cage with the Chechen-born fighter. Their sparring session was a one-sided affair, with the influencer ultimately taking a body shot that left him writhing in pain on the floor.
Over the past few years, there has been a notable rise in influencers and YouTubers challenging professional fighters to film viral content. Earlier this year, combat sports fans saw popular 'Red Pill' influencer Sneako's disastrous sparring session with Sean Strickland, which left the social media star battered and bruised.
It appears Chimaev took a leaf out of Strickland's book and decided to put Litvin through the washer, even if it was just to film content. As soon as Litvin stepped inside the cage, the UFC star began piling on the pressure. Chimaev semi-aggressively threw hard shots at the influencer until he fell to the canvas before treating him to some brutal ground-and-pound offense.
After a struggling Litvin was allowed to stand up, Chimaev began looking for the finish and stalked the influencer around the cage. 'Borz' ultimately landed a hard strike to the influencer's midsection that folded him and left him unable to continue.
Chimaev was booked against Robert Whittaker at UFC Saudi Arabia last month but was forced to withdraw from the bout due to health issues. He last defeated Kamaru Usman via majority decision at UFC 294 last October.
Sean Strickland shares thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev's recent SMASH coin controversy
Sean Strickland recently shared his thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev and his alleged involvement in the SMASH coin controversy. The former UFC middleweight champion opined that Chimaev was a scammer and claimed he was approached to promote a token coin similarly.
For context, Chimaev has faced intense public scrutiny over the past few days over a video of him promoting a crypto token on social media. While his endorsement caused the coin's value to shoot up momentarily, its value dipped the next day, and many investors felt they were duped out of their money.
While Chimaev and his team addressed the allegations and cleared the air surrounding his involvement, it appears Strickland isn't convinced. In a recent rant on X, 'Tarzan' accused Chimaev of not having "integrity" and wrote:
''I've been offered a ton of money to do this same exact thing...... Crazy man you're rich and still try to scam your fans.''
In a follow-up tweet, Strickland wrote:
''Been on x too much. I'll leave you all with this. That was 100% to scam his fans. How do I know this?!? I was just approached to do this same thing... Integrity, you either have it or you don't. Yall shouldn't let this vanish in a news cycle. Absolutely wrong. Goodbye.''