Khamzat Chimaev may have some explaining to do as a United States Air Force veteran is accusing the UFC middleweight champion of alleged assault earlier this month at the DXB airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Chimaev is known to be a little rough around the edges, but we’ve never really seen him get into any altercations with fans or non-fighters. The UFC middleweight champion usually does his bidding against former or future opponents, so to learn that he’s being alleged of assaulting a U.S. military veteran is pretty surprising. Of course, these are just allegations at this time.
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On Friday, an Instagram post from a USAF veteran, Rich Patterson, was discovered and started to make the rounds within MMA’s social media community. The post alleges that Chimaev assaulted Patterson with a “kick to the chest” just for being approached in the airport. Patterson claims he was trying to say hello to the UFC champion and didn’t even mention an attempt to grab a photo or autograph. That’s when things apparently took a turn for the worse.
Check it out below:
“I’m a husband, father, and brother to many,” wrote Patterson. “That said, when we travel, nobody expects to be assaulted, not only that but as a fan attempting to humbly approach a person to say hello to someone they follow. At around 0100-0200 Khamzat Chimaev assaulted me earlier this month in the DXB airport while I was traveling alone back to the U.S. I was literally surrounded by him and like 7 or 8 others when he decided to charge through and kick me in the chest. It’s all on CCTV. No matter how early in the morning, no matter how hung over or intoxicated a ”professional” UFC fighter is, nobody deserves this. I’m a 46-year-old USAF vet. The stories and rumors about this guy’s wild antics are true. This guy tried to take me out.”
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Chimaev, who is one of UFC’s most dominant and impressive fighters right now, hasn’t competed inside of the Octagon since winning the UFC middleweight title against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 all the way back in Aug. 2025. Fight fans have been hoping to see “Borz” back in action to defend his 185-pound strap for the first time, but the undefeated star hasn’t been able to get back inside the cage.
Now he has to deal with this mess if the incident at Dubai’s airport ends up being true.
