Khamzat Chimaev made his middleweight debut on December 22, 2018.
The current UFC middleweight king gave fans a glimpse of what was to come at Brave CF 20.
8-3 MMA prospect Sidney Wheeler was the unlucky man booked to face Khamzat Chimaev.
35 seconds was all it took for the American to realize he had no chance of beating ‘Borz’.
Sidney Wheeler started the fight by charging forward and throwing a two-punch combination.
The commentator thought it landed because Khamzat Chimaev fell forward into his opponent.
In reality, the Russian fighter was simply using Wheeler’s aggression to initiate a grappling sequence.
Chimaev secured a body lock before scoring a trip takedown that was the beginning of the end.
Wheeler immediately gave up his back and ate a bunch of nasty ground strikes from Chimaev.
Things went from bad to worse when Chimaev got wrist control and left his rival defenseless.
There was no escape, and every punch that the future star landed was harder than the last.
Wheeler saw no way out, so he tapped out to strikes just 35 seconds into what proved to be his final MMA fight.
Khamzat Chimaev hasn’t fought since beating Dricus du Plessis to take his middleweight title at UFC 319 in August.
The 31-year-old hoped to make a quick turnaround and defend his new belt at UFC 321 in October.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen due to an injury that will keep him sidelined for the first quarter of 2026.
“My return – after Ramadan (which ends on March 18),” Chimaev said last month.
“Right now, I have a small operation on my foot. I’ll step away from training for a couple of weeks, heal my wound.
“So we’ll prepare after Ramadan. Whoever they give me, that’s who I’ll face.”
It’s currently unclear who Chimaev will face in the first defense of his UFC middleweight title.
Nassourdine Imavov appears to be the frontrunner after knocking out Israel Adesanya earlier this year.
The #2-ranked contender could be leapfrogged by whoever wins when Sean Strickland and Anthony Hernandez fight at UFC Houston on February 21.
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