Dana White reveals Khamzat Chimaev was pulled from UFC Saudi Arabia due to being “violently ill”

Dana White has given the reason as to why Khamzat Chimaev is out of his main event fight against Robert Whittaker at UFC Saudi Arabia.

Chimaev was set to headline next Saturday’s card against Whittaker in a potential title eliminator bout at middleweight. It was a fight many fans were looking forward to, but on Thursday, it was revealed that Chimaev was out of the scrap and Ikram Aliskerov would be serve as his replacement.

During Dana White’s announcement, he gave a reason for Chimaev being out and he said it was due to him being violently ill.

.@robwhittakermma vs Aliskerov LIVE and FREE on @ABCNetwork Saturday June 22nd @Turki_alalshikh #UFCSaudiArabia @RiyadhSeason #RiyadhSeason pic.twitter.com/ERPDi5XEqT

— danawhite (@danawhite) June 13, 2024

“A little news here, unfortunately, Khamzat Chimaev is out of the fight next weekend in Saudi Arabia, violently and I mean violently ill, so he’s going back home and hopefully he gets well soon,” White said.

How or when Chimaev got sick is uncertain, but it was enough for him to be in the hospital and be pulled from the fight. Hopefully, Chimaev can get healthy soon and he will be able to fight again soon and get another big fight next time out.

Khamzat Chimaev is currently 13-0 as a pro and coming off a decision win over Kamaru Usman back in October in his return to middleweight. Chimaev holds notable wins over Kevin Holland, Gilbert Burns, and Li Jingliang among others.

With Chimaev out, Robert Whittaker will now face Ikram Aliskerov who was supposed to fight 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 Long