The MMA community was excited for UFC 294 which took place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Khamzat Chimaev, who is now a middleweight, was expected to fight Paulo Costa in the co-main event. However, Paula Costa was later pulled out of his UFC 294 matchup due to staph infection in his elbow. ‘Borz’ went on to lock horns with Kamaru Usman who made his middleweight debut. The UAE fighter won the fight via majority decision. A few days before the fight in a fun game session in an interview on Nina Drama ‘Borz’ talked about earning $2 million by fighting 7 fighters pitched by the interviewer. With that said MMA fans are curious to know how much purse he will receive from his big fight against the Nigerian fighter.
After the successful weigh-ins of both the fighters, the fans ere set for the spectacular show. ‘Borz’ was holding an undefeated UFC record before the fight with his last fight at UFC 279 against Kevin Holland. As per Chimaev, the only reason Usman stepped in to replace Paulo Costa on a 9-days short notice time was for the money.
Khamzat Chimaev set to walk away with massive payday
‘Borz’ finally returned after a year to face Kamaru Usman at UFC 294 on October 21, 2023. As per the sources, he is set to receive a base pay of $607,550 with an inventive pay of $6000. So, Chimaev is expected to take home over $613,550.
Whereas Usman earned around $516,000, including a base salary of $500,000 with an additional incentive pay of $16,000.
As the UAE middleweight is set to earn big sum, he aims to earn a lot of money in future. In the interview with Nina Daniele, the middleweight fighter mentioned taking inspiration from Conor McGregor. Later the UAE fighter was asked to smash or pass the MMA fighters. He in his smash supremacy chose to smash all the presented fighters and expressed that it would all make around $20 million if he were to fight these 7 UFC fighters. Sean Strickland, Paulo Costa, Israel Adesanya, Dricus Du Plessis, Marvin Vettori, Roman Dolidze and Bo Nickal were the fighters mentioned in the game.
His confidence was also seen during a pre fight press conference where Chimaev predicted the outcome of his upcoming fight against the former welterweight champion with a bold claim.
Chimaev warned Usman predicting Nurmagomedov-Gaethje like outcome
‘Borz’ during the UFC pre-fight conference was asked about facing Kamaru Usman to which he issued a warning against his opponent.
He responded by emphasizing the difference between American wrestling and the mountain wrestling style by giving an example of Khabib Nurmagomedov. He further stated how the Dagestani took over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. Chimaev explained that he possesses the same style as that of ‘The Eagle’ and that his fight against Usman at UFC 294 will eventually have the same outcome as that of Nurmagomedov-Gaethje fight.
In a competitive match at UFC 294, the UAE fighter dominated the fight early on and went on to win the fighters both the fighters proved their mettle. The UFC co-main event delivered to the hype the winner is now all set to get a shot at the middleweight title currently held by Sean Strickland.
