Khamzat Chimaev is not rushing into a wrestling match with Kyle Snyder just because the matchup has name value.
Chimaev recently signed with Real American Freestyle while preparing for his first title defense against Sean Strickland at UFC 328. That put him near Snyder, the American freestyle wrestler who won Olympic gold in 2016, Olympic silver in 2020, multiple world titles, and three NCAA heavyweight titles at Ohio State.
Chimaev told Adam Zubayraev on YouTube that he is more interested in wrestling MMA fighters than jumping straight into a match with an Olympic champion.
“I could grapple with Bo Nickal,” Chimaev said. “He switched to MMA, too, he’s an MMA fighter now. It’s interesting to compete with fighters who are in MMA. But how does it make sense to wrestle an Olympic champion? What’s the point? That’s more like a super fight.”
“There’s no real point in doing that right now,” Chimaev added. “If I wanted to wrestle Snyder or [Abdulrashid] Sadulaev, I would’ve gone to the Olympics. What’s the point?”
Watch Chimaev’s interview below:
Chimaev Says MMA Wrestling And Olympic Wrestling Are Different Sports
Chimaev is unbeaten in MMA and has a freestyle wrestling background that includes three Swedish national titles. He has used pressure, takedowns, clinch work, and control to overwhelm opponents in the UFC, but he made clear that freestyle wrestling against Snyder would be a different assignment.
“I didn’t spend years in the gym doing thousands and thousands of double-leg entries,” Chimaev said. “The last time I even worked on double-legs was [with Arman Tsarukyan] — Arman was just joking around. That was like seven, eight years ago the last time I really tried.”
“That’s why MMA and wrestling are two completely different sports,” Chimaev added. “I keep saying this but people don’t understand.”
Chimaev recently posted a challenge offering $200,000 to a top wrestler who could survive sparring with him. Snyder understands that sparring with Chimaev and wrestling him under RAF rules are different situations.
Бедные борцы начали мне вызовы бросать, у меня проблемы найти спарринг партнёров, жду любого олимпийского чемпиона на спарринги, если он выживет я дам ему 200 тысяч долларов 🤝
— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) April 19, 2026
“I saw he sent out some tweet about sparring with an Olympic champ and paying them $200,000,” Snyder told MMAFighting. “He’s a good promoter and I think it will be fun to one day wrestle him, if he ever wants to.”
“I don’t know what the rules were because if it was just one round, I don’t have any boxing or jiu-jitsu experience,” Snyder added. “I’d probably get pieced up in that way. But I don’t know. I don’t know what the rules are to it. Nonetheless, I’d just be interested in feeling what that’s like.”
Snyder said his interest comes from respect for Chimaev’s competitive mindset.
“I love Khamzat,” Snyder told MMA Fighting. “I love his competitive mentality. He just wants to dominate everybody. I like that attitude.”
Chimaev has Strickland in front of him at UFC 328, while Snyder is focused on RAF 9 and the World Championships. Snyder still thinks the match could happen later, but believes Chimaev should get more wrestling matches first.
“I think that before we wrestle, it would probably make sense for him to get some other matches underneath him and then we’ll see,” Snyder said. “I think that Izzy [Martinez] and Chad [Bronstein] are persuasive when it comes to matchups. Because I don’t think Urijah [Faber] was very excited about wrestling Arman but they’re persuasive so I think they could get it done.”
Chimaev vs. Snyder remains possible, but Chimaev is drawing a clear line between MMA-based wrestling matchups and facing an Olympic champion under freestyle rules. Bo Nickal fits the crossover lane better, while Snyder remains the bigger specialist challenge if RAF builds toward it.
