Henry Cejudo talks about Khamzat Chimaev and apologizes to the Chechen for getting involved in his beef with Paulo Costa.
Olympic gold medalist and ex-UFC double champion Henry Cejudo recently found himself in hot water with Khamzat Chimaev over a prank involving Paulo Costa. The UFC veteran recently narrated how he got on bad terms with the Chechen fighter. This ultimately led to the debacle at the Paris Olympics.
The incident happened when Henry Cejudo pulled a prank on Chimaev during his podcast The Triple C & Schmo Show with The Schmo. ‘Triple C’ addressed it in a recent interview with Home of Fight. He acknowledged that the prank went too far and apologized to the Chechen.
“You know what? I’ll apologize to Khamzat. I really will because now I understand why …I get it, man. I probably trolled it. It wasn’t something that we had planned.” – Henry Cejudo via Home of Fight
So what did Paulo Costa and Henry Cejudo do that got ‘Borz’ so pissed? Costa apparently rubbed a hat belonging to Chimaev on his groin before planning to return it to him. The prank, however, was not well received when Chimaev found out, leading to a tense situation.
Khamzat Chimaev confronted Cejudo during the Paris Olympics. ‘Borz’ and his entourage called Cejudo a “rat piece of sh*t,” which escalated the tension between them. ‘Triple C’ doesn’t hold any ill will toward the Chechen fighter. As of now, the duo have yet to end the beef.
Cejudo has not fought since his UFC 298 defeat to Merab Dvalishvili. Triple C has not retired and might return in the future. Meanwhile, Chimaev will return after facing Kamaru Usman last year. The UFC has rescheduled his fight against Robert Whittaker from the Saudi Arabia event in June.
Khamzat Chimaev will face the biggest challenge of his career at UFC 308
Robert Whittaker is once again set to fight Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308. Their initial fight at UFC Saudi Arabia was called off because of the Chechen’s serious illness. Ikram Aliskerov replaced Chimaev and faced Whittaker. It didn’t go well for the Dagestani fighter. A red-hot Whittaker aims to defeat Chimaev and become the #1 contender for the title.
Whittaker has acknowledged Chimaev’s grappling strength. However, the former champion seems to know what he can expect from the ‘Borz’ in the octagon. The former champion recently sat down for a conversation on Submission Radio. There, he shared insights on how he plans to counter Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling-centric strategy.
“It’s quite simple, you gotta worry about how hard he’s going to push the wrestling envelope in the first few rounds…And then what I’m going to do after that…Taking the fight to him.” – Robert Whittaker via Submission Radio
It turns out, the former middleweight champion has already had two training camps specifically focused on Chimaev’s style. It will be interesting to see how that translates in the octagon against the undefeated Chechen this October at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE.