{"id":672236,"date":"2026-05-15T09:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672236\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T09:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T09:02:08","slug":"khamzat-chimaevs-next-move-causes-worry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/672236\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamzat Chimaev’s Next Move Causes Worry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Rogan has raised concerns about Khamzat Chimaev<\/a>‘s decision to compete at Real America Freestyle Wrestling 10 on June 13.<\/p>\n

This is after Chimaev lost his middleweight<\/a> belt in a split decision to Sean Strickland. Chimaev\u2019s UFC future is still unresolved, while he has asked for a Strickland rematch, there is no agreement in place. Rogan’s view is that stepping straight back into competition against Dillon Danis carries unnecessary risk, with injury his primary concern.<\/p>\n

The concern is not without merit. Chimaev went twenty-five minutes at the highest level of the sport less than two weeks before his scheduled RAF 10 appearance. <\/p>\n

Whatever the format of the grappling contest against Danis \u2014 and it sits at a considerably lower competitive level than a UFC title fight \u2014 the physical toll of five hard rounds against Strickland is real. A training injury in camp or a mishap on the mat on June 13 could complicate whatever the UFC has planned for him next.<\/p>\n

Rogan Reacts<\/p>\n

Chimaev’s position heading into that uncertainty is already complicated enough. Reports that he struggled to make the middleweight limit ahead of UFC 328 have added a weight class dimension to a situation that would otherwise be straightforward \u2014 a close loss, a rematch request, and a timeline to be determined. <\/p>\n

If a move to heavyweight<\/a>\/” class=”internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2″>light heavyweight is being considered by either side, the last thing his team needs is an avoidable injury sustained in a low-stakes grappling match. Rogan made his stance clear. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat could happen to anybody. Wrestlers blow their knees out all the time. It\u2019s just a part of the craziness of explosive movement. I don\u2019t know if he should be interested in doing that,\u201d Rogan said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Rogan has raised concerns about Khamzat Chimaev‘s decision to compete at Real America Freestyle Wrestling 10 on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-672236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672236","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=672236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}