Dana White has given the rationale as to why Khamzat Chimaev is out of his predominant occasion struggle in opposition to Robert Whittaker at UFC Saudi Arabia.
Chimaev was set to headline subsequent Saturday’s card in opposition to Whittaker in a possible title eliminator bout at middleweight. It was a struggle many followers had been trying ahead to, however on Thursday, it was revealed that Chimaev was out of the scrap and Ikram Aliskerov can be function his alternative.
Throughout Dana White’s announcement, he gave a motive for Chimaev being out and he mentioned it was because of him being violently in poor health.
.@robwhittakermma vs Aliskerov LIVE and FREE on @ABCNetwork Saturday June twenty second @Turki_alalshikh #UFCSaudiArabia @RiyadhSeason #RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/ERPDi5XEqT
— danawhite (@danawhite) June 13, 2024
“A bit information right here, sadly, Khamzat Chimaev is out of the struggle subsequent weekend in Saudi Arabia, violently and I imply violently in poor health, so he’s going again house and hopefully he will get properly quickly,” White mentioned.
How or when Chimaev obtained sick is unsure, nevertheless it was sufficient for him to be within the hospital and be pulled from the struggle. Hopefully, Chimaev can get wholesome quickly and he’ll be capable of struggle once more quickly and get one other large struggle subsequent day out.
Khamzat Chimaev is at the moment 13-0 as a professional and coming off a choice win over Kamaru Usman again in October in his return to middleweight. Chimaev holds notable wins over Kevin Holland, Gilbert Burns, and Li Jingliang amongst others.
With Chimaev out, Robert Whittaker will now face Ikram Aliskerov who was alleged to struggle this Saturday at UFC Vegas 93.
UFC Saudi Arabia is now as follows:
Robert Whittaker vs. Ikram Aliskerov
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alexander Volkov
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Daniel Rodriguez
Melsik Baghdasaryan vs. Muhammad Naimov
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Johnny Walker
Joilton Lutterbach vs. Shara Magomedov
Jared Gordon vs. Nasrat Haqparast
Nicolas Dalby vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov
Farid Basharat vs. Montel Jackson
Muin Gafurov vs. Kyung Ho Kang
Magomed Gadzhiyasulov vs. Brendson Ribeiro
SD Dumas vs. Denis Tiuliulin
ChangHo Lee vs. Xiao Lengthy
![Khamzat Chimaev losing at UFC 328 „doesn’t make sense“, per ex-UFC champ teammate: „Maybe they just wanted Sean [Strickland] to win“](https://i0.wp.com/www.bjpenn.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Sean-Strickland-defeats-Khamzat-Chimaev-at-UFC-328.jpg?ssl=1 "Khamzat Chimaev losing at UFC 328 „doesn’t make sense“, per ex-UFC champ teammate: „Maybe they just wanted Sean [Strickland] to win“")
