Khamzat Chimaev

Chimaev's first professional loss cost him the middleweight title in a five-round main event. He created the usual early wrestling questions, but Strickland stayed upright often enough to keep the fight long, jab-heavy and close, edging a split decision over 25 minutes.

Key moments

• First professional defeat after a 15-0 start.
• A five-round middleweight title fight in Newark.
• Strickland's jab and takedown resistance kept the pace from snowballing.
• The split decision ended Chimaev's reign after a single defense window.

Chimaev won the middleweight title by outlasting du Plessis across five rounds in Chicago. The result gave him his third straight middleweight win, and the post-fight bonus underlined how important the performance was to his rise from contender to champion.

Key moments

• Won the UFC Middleweight Championship.
• Handled a full five-round title fight to take a unanimous decision.
• Improved to 15-0 at the time.
• Also earned a Performance of the Night bonus.

Chimaev ripped through Whittaker in one round, forcing the former champion into fast grappling exchanges before locking onto a brutal face crank. The finish made him impossible to deny as a middleweight title threat and earned another performance bonus.

Key moments

• Finished Whittaker in the opening round at UFC 308.
• The submission was officially recorded as a face crank.
• One of the biggest wins of his career before the title shot.
• Collected a Performance of the Night bonus.

Chimaev returned to middleweight and had to answer real adversity for the first time in the UFC. He built an early lead with control and pressure, then survived Usman's late push to preserve the unbeaten record with a majority decision.

Key moments

• A three-round middleweight fight in Abu Dhabi.
• Usman stepped in and made Chimaev work far deeper than expected.
• Chimaev still banked enough early control to stay unbeaten.
• The majority-decision result moved him toward the title picture.

After the chaotic fight-week reshuffle at UFC 279, Chimaev made the replacement matchup look simple. He took Holland down immediately, climbed to the back and finished with a brabo choke in just over two minutes.

Key moments

• Contested at a 180-pound catchweight after the late card shuffle.
• Immediate takedown and top pressure from the opening seconds.
• Finished with a brabo choke at 2:13 of round one.
• Another first-round stoppage in the UFC.

Burns was the first fight that forced Chimaev out of the quicksand version of his game and into a full three-round scrap with a proven contender. He still came through with a unanimous decision, and the result mattered because it proved his unbeaten run could survive real resistance at the top of the division.

Key moments

• Beat Gilbert Burns by unanimous decision at UFC 273.
• It was the first time Chimaev went to the judges in his professional career.
• The win moved him from prospect hype into the welterweight title conversation.

Chimaev returned from the long COVID layoff and immediately looked like himself again, rag-dolling Li before forcing a first-round rear-naked choke. The comeback performance restored his momentum in one night and re-established him as one of the UFC's most feared pressure grapplers.

Key moments

• Submitted Li Jingliang at 3:16 of round one at UFC 267.
• The finish earned Chimaev a Performance of the Night bonus.
• It was his first fight after the cancelled Leon Edwards booking sequence and the health layoff that followed.

Meerschaert was supposed to be a sturdier measuring stick, and Chimaev erased that idea in 17 seconds with one right hand. The knockout made the hype impossible to dismiss and gave him his third UFC win in just over two months.

Key moments

• Knocked out Gerald Meerschaert with a right hand at 0:17 of round one.
• The finish earned Chimaev another UFC Performance of the Night bonus.
• It was his third UFC victory in a span of 66 days.

Ten days after his debut, Chimaev took a second fight on Fight Island and bullied McKee from the opening takedown to the finishing barrage. The turnaround was almost as important as the stoppage because it turned a promising debut into instant momentum.

Key moments

• Stopped Rhys McKee by first-round TKO at 3:09.
• The bout came just 10 days after Chimaev's UFC debut against John Phillips.
• He collected a second straight Performance of the Night bonus.

Chimaev's UFC debut against Phillips was a one-sided demonstration of what his game looks like when he gets the first takedown. He dominated the grappling and positional battle until the D'arce choke arrived in round two, announcing himself with the kind of mauling performance the promotion notices immediately.

Key moments

• Submitted John Phillips with a D'arce choke at 1:12 of round two in his UFC debut.
• The performance earned Chimaev a Performance of the Night bonus.
• It was the opening step in the rapid three-fight UFC surge that made him a breakout name in 2020.

By the time he met Hlongwa in Abu Dhabi, Chimaev had already built real BRAVE momentum and he kept it moving with another stoppage. The second-round technical submission pushed him to 6-0 and closed out his BRAVE run with a clean, unbeaten ledger.

Key moments

• Defeated Mzwandile Hlongwa by technical submission at 1:15 of round two.
• The fight took place on the BRAVE CF 27 main card in Abu Dhabi.
• It was Chimaev's final win before leaving BRAVE for the UFC.

Aliskerov entered unbeaten and was viewed as Chimaev's biggest regional test, but Chimaev flattened him with a first-round uppercut in Jordan. That knockout became one of the standout results of his pre-UFC career because it came against a serious prospect, not a developmental opponent.

Key moments

• Knocked out the previously unbeaten Ikram Aliskerov at 2:26 of round one.
• The finish came by uppercut at BRAVE CF 23 in Amman.
• It was one of the signature wins that raised Chimaev's profile before his UFC signing.

Chimaev took the Wheeler fight on short notice and up a division, then still ended it in 35 seconds. The win mattered because it was his first BRAVE main event and another example of how quickly his pressure could break regional opposition.

Key moments

• Stopped Sidney Wheeler in 35 seconds in the BRAVE CF 20 main event.
• BRAVE described the bout as a short-notice step up in weight for Chimaev.
• The finish moved him to 4-0 and gave him his biggest win to that point.

Chimaev's BRAVE debut against Kisič was the first sign that his wrestling pressure and finishing instincts would translate quickly at a higher regional level. He broke the unbeaten Croatian prospect with punches in the opening round and started his BRAVE tenure with exactly the kind of emphatic result the promotion wanted.

Key moments

• Stopped Marko Kisič by first-round TKO at 3:12 in his BRAVE debut.
• Kisič entered the bout unbeaten, making it a meaningful early test.
• The win launched the four-fight BRAVE streak that led Chimaev to the UFC.

Magnor was Chimaev's second documented professional fight and the one that showed the finishing threat would not be limited to strikes. He stayed on the attack until the rear-naked choke came late in the first round, pushing his record to 2-0.

Key moments

• Submitted Ole Magnor with a rear-naked choke at 4:23 of round one.
• The win came at Fight Club Rush 3 in Sweden.
• It gave Chimaev his first professional submission victory.

The Sagen fight is where Chimaev's professional MMA record begins, with a second-round stoppage in Sweden. The stakes were small compared with what followed, but it established the same pattern that would define the rest of his climb: early control, pressure and a finish before the fight could settle.

Key moments

• Won his professional MMA debut against Gard Olve Sagen at IRFA 14.
• Tapology records the finish as ground-and-pound in round two; the local record line lists round two at 0:05.
• The result started the unbeaten run that eventually carried him into BRAVE and then the UFC.