With his MMA career seemingly stalled out, Khamzat Chimaev is filling his time by promoting a new crypto coin—much to the chagrin of fight fans.
‘Borz’ was originally scheduled to headline the UFC’s promotional debut in Saudi Arabia last month, squaring off with former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Unfortunately, the fight fell apart days away from fight night after Chimaev became “violently ill,” paving the way for division standout Ikram Aliskerov to step in and take his spot.
Recently, Chimaev took to social media and appeared to be in much better shape than he was a couple of weeks ago. But instead of offering pundits any insight into his condition or when we could see him back inside the Octagon, the undefeated Chechen instead used his time to promote a new cryptocurrency.
“Hello guys, there is one crypto coin about me,” Chimaev said on X. “They call it Smash. Let’s smash together.”
Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev), a #UFC fighter, promoted the token $SMASH.
After the tweet, the token dropped by 94%. 😬 pic.twitter.com/zkbXOtvAju
— Satoshi Club (@esatoshiclub) July 4, 2024
Per the official website, the goal of Smash is to “bring the fighting spirit and the drive of the man himself into the world of DeFi,” or decentralized finance.
As expected, fight fans blasted Chimaev in the comments, condemning the once-celebrated star with one user suggesting that the Chechen’s falloff “needs to be studied.” Another commenter placed the blame on Chimaev’s management team, saying: “U need a better squad, epic fail.”
Fans Aren’t Interested in Hearing Anything Khamzat Chimaev Has to Say
In a follow-up post on Instagram, Chimaev attempted to put the focus back on his long-awaited return to the Octagon.
“Hard times create strong men,” he posted. “I’ve never had it easy or waited for it to be easier. Will soon show you all again who is the King here.”
Still, Chimaev couldn’t escape the wrath of fans with one dismissing his return talks by simply responding with, “Okay, crypto guy.”
Another added that Chimaev should discontinue using the word “soon,” taking a dig at the fact that ‘Borz’ has only fought twice in the last two years. “My man should remove ‘soon’ from his vocabulary.”
Needless to say, fans are getting fed up with Khamzat Chimaev’s schtick of talking tough and doing little to back it up.
