When Khamzat Chimaev was manhandled by security after attempting to storm the cage in TKO protest
Khamzat Chimaev is set to return to the octagon after a hiatus of over a year later this weekend at UFC 294. While he was initially supposed to go up against Paulo Costa, the Brazilian was forced to pull out of the fight recently and was replaced by former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
Ahead of his highly anticipated bout against Kamaru Usman, we look back at when Khamzat Chimaev was restrained by security for trying to enter the cage in a TKO protest. In January 2022, Chimaev was attending an MMA event in Sweden to support one of his teammates.
However, his teammate ended up losing in a controversial manner and it caused a lot of chaos. The referee waived off the fight when Chimaev's teammate struggled to defend and looked to be dazed. As soon as the fight was waived off, the UFC superstar leaped over the barrier and attempted to enter the cage to dispute the decision.
However, Khamzat Chimaev was blocked by the security personnel and was dragged back.
Bo Nickal was disappointed when the UFC didn't approach him to fight Khamzat Chimaev
Rising middleweight contender Bo Nickal has expressed his disappointment of not being offered to fight Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294. While the UFC replaced Paulo Costa with Kamaru Usman, who will be making his middleweight debut, Nickal believes he wasn't offered the fight to protect 'Borz'.
It is worth noting that Bo Nickal is 2-0 in the UFC so far, with both wins coming via first-round finishes. Many believe that Nickal will give Chimaev a run for his money down the line. During a recent segment on his YouTube channel, the American explained his thoughts on not being offered the fight and said:
"I was disappointed they didn’t ask me to step in there. I was expecting at least an ask like, 'Hey, you want to do this?' But, no. Just nothing. Nothing from the UFC. It is what it is. I’m guessing they didn’t want me to roll over into Abu Dhabi on 10 days’ notice and smash their boy in front of his home crowd or something... They didn’t even ask, it wasn’t even an option really...we’ll do it another time."
Catch Nickal's comments below (4:17):