What Is UFC Welterweight Khamzat Chimaev’s Status?

Many have been wondering what’s the deal with Khamzat Chimaev’s visa and now we know the answer.

Chimaev has been quickly making a name for himself. He was the talk of the MMA community with his first two fights under the UFC banner. Chimaev had two bouts within the span of 10 days. First, he submitted John Phillips in the second round via D’Arce choke. In his second UFC outing, he defeated Rhys McKee via first-round TKO.

MMAJunkie’s John Morgan took to his Twitter account to reveal that Chimaev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz says the rising 170-pounder has obtained his U.S. visa.

It took some time, but Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) has obtained his U.S. visa and may compete again as soon as Sept. 19. When confirming news with @AliAbdelaziz00, he thanked @danawhite for getting visa secured.

“Nothing is impossible to Dana White. He is the new James Bond.”

— John Morgan (@MMAjunkieJohn) September 3, 2020

There is a lot of fan excitement surrounding Chimaev. His fighting style has been compared to that of UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Chimaev’s wrestling has been on point thus far but he’s also put some relentless ground-and-pound on display.

UFC President Dana White initially wanted Chimaev to return to action as soon as UFC 252 on August 15. It was simply too quick of a turnaround for Chimaev to gather the documents he needed to compete in the U.S. Now that he’s free to compete stateside, he could be booked in a bout inside the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada sooner rather than later.