Khamzat Chimaev might win world titles, but he’s never not going to be dragged for being involved in a crypto scam. And while its mostly people on social media who do the job, this time, Chimaev has taken a few strays courtesy of UFC’s premier commentator Joe Rogan.
Rogan called crypto investors ‘gamblers‘ and used Chimaev’s $mash token controversy as a prime example of why the market is, in his words, “worse than the casino.“
Chimaev had endorsed a cryptocurrency called $mash token on his social media last year, hyping it up to his massive following. But soon after, fans accused him of pulling a pump-and-dump—an infamous market manipulation tactic where the value of a token is artificially inflated to attract investors before being sold off, causing the price to plummet. This had led to many of his fans who had invested in the token after his endorsement, losing a lot of money.
Chimaev later denied any involvement and blamed it squarely on his manager. But by then, the damage was done, and the outrage was real.
Some time has passed since then, but Rogan, it seems, hasn’t let it go. On an episode of his latest podcast episode with former NFL star Antonio Brown, he didn’t mince any words.
“I don’t know if the people buying those coins are fans, I think they’re gamblers… It’s more rigged than the casino, because the casino, the person playing it can’t rig it.”, Rogan said.
Rogan also called for more accountability from the fans since, much like gambling, there are no promised returns, just people hoping to make a quick profit.
Interestingly, while $mashcoin comes back every now and then and reminds Chimaev of the mistake, UFC’s bastion of virtue Khabib Nurmagomedov, kind of always gets away with it.
Funnily enough, Nurmagomedov still promotes different NFTs and crypto coins on his Twitter.
Khabib’s ‘Crypto Scam’
Fans love his ‘clean’ lifestyle of no partying, no alcohol, no gambling, no late nights. But is Khabib as straight as he claims?
His good-guy persona was challenged last year after comparisons were made of his selling of crypto coins to gambling, something that remains prohibited under the Islamic faith.
It was a new NFT collection by GMT that the 29-0 former Dagestani fighter was promoting.
Fans flocked to comments on his social media posts and accused him of taking advantage of them. They claimed that millions were following the former champion and would blindly invest in the NFT and would end up losing money.
Everyone has a price pic.twitter.com/vLjb0vMBQ7
— Ben Davis (@BenTheBaneDavis) February 26, 2023
Despite the backlash, Khabib didn’t back down. In an attempt to promote his NFT collection, he also started selling experiences involving himself. At one point, he was even reportedly offering fans a chance to win signed gloves from his time in the Octagon.
For a man who had once claimed ‘gambling was more addictive than alcohol’, this seems rather hypocritical.
