{"id":668597,"date":"2026-05-13T17:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668597\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:04:08","slug":"kamaru-usman-khamzat-chimaev-needs-real-mma-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668597\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamaru Usman: Khamzat Chimaev needs real MMA head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kamaru
\nUsman<\/a> is questioning Khamzat
\nChimaev<\/a>\u2019s training strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chimaev (15-1) lost his middleweight title to Sean
\nStrickland<\/a> (31-7) via a narrow split decision at UFC 328<\/a>
\nlast weekend. Chimaev was visibly tired in the second round, and
\ndespite finding a second wind in the fourth, it was too little, too
\nlate from \u201cBorz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usman, who has shared the Octagon with Chimaev, believes the latter
\nneeds an MMA head coach. While Chimaev certainly has coaches who
\nare a regular presence in his corner, he doesn\u2019t train with any
\nrenowned MMA coach. Chimaev\u2019s friend,
\nUFC<\/a> lightweight Arman
\nTsarukyan<\/a>, was seen taking an active role in his corner last
\nweekend. Usman believes Chimaev has gotten this far by training
\nhimself for the most part. According to Usman, Chimaev needs a head
\ncoach to reach the next level.How to Reach the Next Level
\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m impressed by how far he\u2019s gotten by just really training
\nhimself,\u201d Chimaev said on the \u201dPound4Pound\u201d podcast<\/a>. \u201cBecause in there
\nbetween rounds, who\u2019s his coach? Who\u2019s giving him sound
\ninstructions?… [Arman
\nTsarukyan<\/a>], a fighter still trying to make his way to the
\ntitle, was your head coach? Who\u2019s your striking coach? Who\u2019s your
\nMMA coach?… What\u2019s missing is just that person that you respect
\nto the utmost degree… A bond between Khamzat and finding a coach
\nthat can put that together could take Khamzat to the next
\nlevel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chimaev trains strength and conditioning under coach Sam Calavitta
\nat the Treigning Lab in California. Chimaev can be seen doing
\ngruelling workouts with a team that is not limited to MMA fighters.
\nHowever, many have started doubting the effectiveness of \u201cCoach
\nCal\u2019s\u201d training regimen for fighters since Chimaev\u2019s loss against
\nStrickland. UFC veteran Cub Swanson<\/a>
\nhad raised questions about the same long back, wondering how
\nback-breaking S&C applies to MMA.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kamaru Usman is questioning Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s training strategy.\u00a0 Chimaev (15-1) lost his middleweight title to Sean Strickland (31-7)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[4225,64,63,786,223668,785,44,85],"class_list":["post-668597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-https-www-sherdog-com-news-news-ufc","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}