Khamzat Chimaev Overtakes Jon Jones to Join Exclusive Club With Conor McGregor, Khabib, Islam Makhachev, Ronda Rousey

It didn’t take more than a couple of fights for the UFC brass and fans of the sport to predict that Khamzat Chimaev was destined to be a huge star one day. This week, the UFC middleweight is not poised to join one of the most elite clubs on social media, seemingly inching closer to fulfilling that destiny.

Chimaev, a fan-favorite finisher at the middleweight limit, is poised to fight middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis upon his return. Currently boasting the number three rank in the division, Chimaev is riding a 14-fight winning spree and is even being touted as the betting favorite against the South African champion.

But as of right now, he’s working overtime to prove that the rumors about the UFC’s lack of star power remain just that – a toothless rumor. Chimaev has overtaken heavyweight champion Jon Jones (9.506m) on Instagram, reaching a dizzying 9.532 million followers.

He is now in the top 5 for most followed UFC fighters ever. The crown continues to be held by the notorious Irishman, Conor McGregor (46.8M), followed not-so-closely by the undefeated Dagestani, Khabib Nurmagomedov (38.6M), ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey (17.2M), and the promotion’s lightweight king, Islam Makhachev (10M).

Chimaev, of course, now only needs less than half a million followers to join this exclusive club.

It is often unusual for grapplers to have such a following among fans. While Khabib was the first among the ground game experts to crack the code, he was aided in principle by a reckless McGregor ahead of UFC 229 in 2018. Islam, of course, rode in on Khabib’s success and eventually compounded it with dominant title wins and defenses, which makes Chimaev’s success all the more impressive.

Of all his would-be peers on the list, he is the only one without a UFC title to his name.

Chimaev’s meteoric rise explained

Landing in the Octagon back in 2020, Chimaev would immediately attract the masses in the UFC. Debuting with a D’Arce choke over John Phillips in July 2020, Chimaev would return in 10 days time to stop Rhys McKee with strikes.

The outing came as a record-setting return in the least amount of days between fights in the modern era. These were the first two bodies in his trail of 8.

Add to this a penchant for aura farming at the cost of his colleagues, and Chimaev’s social media profiles blew up in no time. There was a brief fall after 2020 when Chimaev continued to miss weight and pull out of fights, but since his successful and brutal return at UFC 308 last year against former champion Robert Whittaker, that problem has resolved itself.

Vowing to take on all comers on both his Instagram and X accounts, Chimaev attracts major fanfare with every post. Now, with the UFC middleweight title within sniffing distance of the Chechen wolf, that fanfare is only expected to escalate, especially should he defeat a champion with Jon Snow-levels of plot armor.

However, Chimaev’s remarks about Du Plessis’ last fight against Sean Strickland suggest he’s already throwing shade at the big South African.

“Biggest bulls**t is this fight,” Chimaev posted on X following the UFC 312 headliner.

It will be interesting to see if the Chechnya-born, now an Emirati citizen, Chimaev can truly live up to the expectations he’s been burdened with or just remain another flash in the pan in an age of social media mirage.