Apparent Next Big Thing Khamzat Chimaev was scheduled to fight Leon Edwards in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 41 on December 19, 2020, but on November 29, it was announced that “Borz” had tested positive for COVID-19, and the bout was in jeopardy. Then on December 1, Edwards too tested positive for COVID-19, and it was severe, with the Jamaica-born, Birmingham, England-based fighter reportedly losing twelve pounds. The fight was rescheduled to a UFC event on January 20. Then Chimaev was reported to be suffering continuing issues with the disease, and the fight was rescheduled until March 30. 

Now the bout has been delayed again, due to Chimaev’s complications from the pandemic. Khamzat’s manager Majdi Shammas spoke recently with Frontkick.online, and detailed the extent of Chimaev’s fight with the disease.

“It is what it is and there’s nothing we can do,” said the manager. “We tried to come back this Tuesday. He insisted that he wanted to train. Then we tried and it failed.

He was really bad, you know? He didn’t even do two rounds straight. He did one round and then rested. He started coughing, he started feeling ill again, and we had to cancel the training. He even went to the ambulance, to the hospital.

He complained that he had some chest pains after the training, so we gonna check the heart as well. We have been in and out of hospitals so many times now. Nowadays, lately, the last weeks it’s crazy. The other day, when he finished the training on Tuesday, he couldn’t even walk up to his room. He didn’t even have the energy to go up to his room. He fell asleep in the lobby.”

He can’t train. His friends called me, ‘Hey, Khamzat can’t even speak.’ His fever is so high, his headache is so much, muscle pain and everything. Then an ambulance came and got him to the hospital. Even when he was in the hospital, he called me, when he called me he thought he was going to die. It was really bad.

h/t Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting