On Saturday 13th January, Youtuber and Da’ee, Zeeshan Ali, conducted an engaging sit-down interview with international, UFC superstar, Khamza Chamaev amidst a live audience at an event dedicated to raising funds for Palestine. The cosy sofa setting provided the perfect backdrop for an insightful conversation.
Khamza on his relationship with his mother
ZA: Thank you for giving me the honour. So, Hamza, I wanted to start off, um, very simply and very basically. Any person from history we’re sitting over here, if you could pick anyone from history to sit and talk with, who would it be and why?
KC: If, of course, I want to meet, if I could choose from history, Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). I would also choose like Khalid bin Waleed, the guy who never lost because, because of that guy, so many Muslims in the world as well. So he was the one part of the Muslims, so he was helping the Prophet (s.a.w). Strongest Muslim that ever been so for me yeah. So, for me, yeah, alhamdulillah. -Alhamdulillah, Khalid bin the warrior who never lost.
ZA: Alhamdulillah. So Value of parents: My father passed away when I was one and, alhamdulillah, my mother’s, you know, just taken over. Alhamdulillah, I appreciate the value of a mother. And you’ve mentioned many times, Masha’Allah, in your interviews, and this is how I can relate with you, that you say she would be the last to eat, and how you are earning money because of her. And today, you probably see and you probably hear a lot of people not valuing their parents. So, as a champion, you know how important it is, would you say to value our parents?
KC: For me, it’s the most important in the world. For me, my mom is everything. So, because of her, so I’m sitting here, I become Hamza Chimaev who I am. So, my mom, like all of us, guys, we come from different countries. We’re not from here, you know, from Europe. We all, all of us, all our mothers, fathers, they went through a lot of stuff, and they bring us here as well. And my mom, that time when I was young, I talk about that before as well. So, she let us, all of us, eat first. We were five kids. So, we are five, and after, when we were finished, it was almost nothing. We didn’t understand. She should give it because we were too young. And she was eating after. And when you become older, older, you understand. She was doing it only for us, everything for us. She was hungry, she stayed hungry to give us food. So, mom is paradise man is, for me, is everything. So, that’s why I always motivated in my fights when you have nobody.
If you don’t have that good relationship with your family, I don’t know where the people are going to get the motivation.
ZA: So, how do you maintain that relationship with your mother?
KC: What?
ZA: How do you maintain that?
KC: We talk on the phone every day. We have, I speak about everything about my life.
When I have some hard times, I speak about that. She gives me choices, she’s a power for me. She gives me power when I’m going down. She brings me up again. So, it’s always been, we don’t trust luck and these things. We are Muslims, alhamdulillah. But my mom being, I don’t know, God gave it, Allah gave it to her. So, I could call her, speak with her. So, brings me back when I’m down.
And I love her. I can’t say with the words how much I love my mom.
Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. I hope everyone is good with her parents. And also, without them, nobody else is going to be here. Without your parents, you are nobody.
ZA: Mashallah, fantastic answer. And especially to be hearing it from a champion, how important it is to have your mother in your life and to maintain regular contact with them as well. And to trust them with your secrets and with your truths when trust has become something that you can’t really do with a lot of people.
Khamza on how he prepares for a fight
ZA: So, Hamza, just like, you know, you have a room filled with people cheering your name, you’ve been preparing for a fight, and the moments before you come on stage, before you come into the octagon, how do you motivate yourself? Like, how do you deal with that pressure?
KC: Actually, I have fun.
So, for me, it’s not that big pressure, fight, you know? So, I told about that before as well.
So, I feel like I’m going to play football with my friends. So, it’s not like a big thing for me.
We went through a lot of toughest things, you know? So, just fight with the gloves, it’s like I take it like my job. So, it’s nothing like crazy stuff. But yeah, fight is not that hard. Training, went through a lot of surgeries, a lot of hard things, you know? You have to do it every day, twice, three times, four times a day. Train, wake up same time every day, sleep same time, eat same thing every day, like for five, six months. That thing is tougher than the fight. Fight for me, just have fun, to finish my exam, can say like, you know, study, study, then you finish in the best way you can. So, I take it like at my job.
So, for me, it’s nothing like crazy. For somebody, maybe crazy stuff. I have fun in the fight.
ZA: That’s actually quite profound. So, it’s how you kind of put things in perspective. You don’t see it like a big thing because of what you’ve gone through. Alhamdulillah. But if I was to go in a bit more kind of detail, let’s just say moments before you come on stage in your locker room, are you going to be sitting down? Are you going to be walking around? Are you going to be saying stuff?
What’s moments before you come on? What do you like doing? Do you like silence? Do you like people talking? Tell us a bit more about that.
KC: In the locker rooms with my friend, my coaches. We joking, everything before I go in, I always say in my side and talk to Allah.
So, say to Allah, “If it’s going out and win the fight, if it’s good for me, give me the victory. If it’s not for me, good, alhamdulillah, for everything.”
Alhamdulillah, till now, alhamdulillah, we are undefeated. So, with Allah’s will and so going to go take more victories. So, yeah, that’s the biggest thing for me.
Do dua, so he will give it to me if it’s good for me and I can help somebody with that and with the people who need me. If he’s not making me like money, if money, all the, you know, big money in the fight as well. And I’ve been from zero to my account after a couple of weeks, a million. So then that’s why I’m always saying, with this money, going to make me the wrong bad guy or going to make me get to the wrong way. So I say for me, it’s lost. It’s not lost in the fight because if I win the fight and make the money, if I go the wrong way, this is a big loss for me. Alhamdulillah, everything now, so I can help the people, win my fights, so doing good things, you know. Alhamdulillah, happy for that.
Khamza on who he wants to fight
ZA: Alhamdulillah, fantastic. Okay, Hamza, I’m going to mention some names now, huh, and you tell me; Fighters! There’s going to be some dangerous names, yeah? So then you let me know how you would fare against them, yeah? How you think that you would handle them.
So the first name, Conor McGregor.
KC: First thing is, most dangerous guy is me, brother. They’re not dangerous. Of course, the guy is 66 kilos. I’m 84 kilos, and I’m much bigger than him. So I don’t think it will ever happen, that fight. If it happens, of course, we’re going to smash that guy.
ZA: We’re going to make sure Conor sees this, and we’re going to make sure that he knows wagwan. So next, we’ve got Israel Adesanya.
KC: I can say this, this guy’s running for me like a couple of years. So now I’m changing my shoes, running after him all the time. So would could say, so of course, I will win the fight. I’ve been calling him out since the beginning. So that’s guy out in, I don’t know what’s happening with him now. So there’s a lot of good guys who need to fight. So if he’s on, of course, I’m going to smash him too.
ZA: Alex Pereira
KC: He’s too… He’s saying the same stuff. He was fighting at 84. I said, “Let’s go fight at 84.” He said, “No, 93.” So I said, “93” as well. Now he has the belt in 93. When I said, “Call him out in 93 kg” he said, “Heavyweight.” So what that means? That means the guy’s running for me. So soon, if I come up to heavyweight, he’s going to find some different weight classes. So I don’t know what to say about him. He’s a good fighter, good striker. He’s one of the best strikers in the UFC, but the wrestling MMA skills I have different skills. So for sure, I’m 100% confident I can win this guy.
ZA: Tom Aspinall
KC: This heavyweight guy, he actually fought the same day first time in the UFC, like me. So I’ve seen him there as well. His father, I know that guy, and very nice guy. I don’t know, need to eat more. So bring me up to this weight class. And for sure, I’m not here for a couple of days in the UFC, so going to change my weight classes. Every day, my weight’s going up. I’m 29 years old, so young for this weight class. We will see the future. And if you ask me, any fighter put me against me in the cage, of course, I think I’m going to win.
ZA: Any fighter in the cage, you think you’d win? What about the dream match, Hamza Chimaev versus Jon Jones?
KC: It is Jon Jones. Still, he’s the best fighter in the world right now. So he has the most title defences. He’s a two-weight class champion. He’s never lost still. You know, he’s been the youngest champion in UFC. If you speak about MMA, everyone knows Jon Jones. So he’s the best in history. Nobody’s like him. So for sure, he’s a dream match for everyone who wants to be in the history. So that’s why I hope I’m younger than him. I hope he’s not going to go soon from this job. So get this fight as well. So when I get up, I like him. I like his training. I’m watching his training. I learn a lot of stuff from him as well. So we speak about with him about training. So we can maybe get trained together. He’s a nice guy. We speak and joke around.
ZA: If both in your prime, who do you think would take it, you or Jon Jones?
KC: Depends on the weight class. That’s too. Also, he’s now heavyweight. Of course, always in asking. If I ask this guy, he will say, “Yeah, I will win.” You’re asking me, for sure, I think I will win. So that’s a hard fight for everyone. And he’s been fighting for two times with my training partner, Alexander Gustafsson. They had good fights as well. So I become a fighter with Alex. I’ve been trained with him so far. And for sure, I want to fight with this guy. So it will be a big history if we fight. Since Alex gave him the best fight in history, he gets now. It maybe my time to fight him as well.
Khamza on his hardships
ZA: Alright. So a lot of us are curious…biggest challenge. We’ve been following your career in the MMA. What is the biggest challenge that you’ve faced so far?
KC: If we speak about the fighters, all of them are big challenges. But Gilbert Burns fight, Kamaru Usman fight, a lot of stuff the people don’t know is happening before the fights. Those fights I make for myself, you know, because I give myself a challenge to knock him out, to submit him. Like I always, before the fight, I want to finish somebody, you know, finish all my opponents. And sometimes you need to be a bit calm down and to do the perfect job. That wolf from me, he said, “Just take off the heads.” You know? So that’s why I made those, they was tough fights man. So I can say, you can say that time was the hardest time for me.
ZA: What about generally in MMA? Any, like, other than the fighters, anything difficult that you faced? Or the most difficult thing? I know you’ve spent obviously four years living in the gym. Some people live in the gym, but you literally lived In the gym. Um, that obviously wasn’t, I’m sure it wasn’t easy. So, anything that really sticks out when you think back? You’re like, ‘Yeah, that was quite tough.’
KC: Yeah, it’s like, you know, our gym was not like on the top. We don’t have a window. You don’t see anything. So when you go down, it’s dark. And when everyone’s going from the gym, it’s dark. There are now different gyms, and a big gym. So, um, that gym was more for profession.
Now, as a big gym, a lot of people can train with us. And in that gym, me and my friend, Bilal, he’s sitting here as well. So, everyone was gone. I was, they put off the lights. It was dark inside, like, and like 7:00 a day, you know? So we were sitting inside, and we didn’t have so much money, and some of our friends did help us as well. So with the food, with the training stuff, that time was hard. And, um, and a couple of months, we were motivated. Then, me, I wanted to go back and work, nor be a normal human. So, it’s a being to get the money and normal food. And then, I came back, tried to train harder. And then, my friend is my brother, Belal. He wants to go back home. We both were like close brothers and helping each other. When he had the problems with his head, it was almost like jail, I can say. You know, it’s like four years in the gym, small rooms, two meters, you know? And we only had training stuff and two pants, and also some training stuff as well. We didn’t have anything. So, four years, I didn’t have money. My friends and one of them, he’s sitting here, Majdi, like Redha, Alex and these guys, helped me and Belal. They gave us food to stay there in the gym and become the fighter. That time was hard. So, the most hard thing I went through was training four times a day and eating like one pizza all day. So, that was a big pizza.
ZA: What were the toppings of the pizza?
KC: So, just the normal pizza, halal from the, we had the close guy. He gave us a little bit cheaper, so we always went there. And the guy helped us as well. So, different beef, all these things. You can say that time was the hardest time for me.
Sorry, I forgot the question, brother. You used to ask me, I went too forward. You know, you know what you were doing. Fighting is not good, brother. Sometimes you’re going crazy in the head.
ZA: Subhanallah. But it’s ironic you say that because I said, “What’s your biggest challenge?” And then I could see when you started talking about the gym and you started talking about how dark it was and, you know, how difficult it was, I could actually feel that you pictured yourself back. So you went back there and I could see that, you know, you were really invested in that. So that’s why I can, you you know, I can appreciate it. Obviously, it was a tough time for you. It was a very difficult time, and um, you know, “after hardship comes ease”, so alhamdulillah, you know that hardship paid off.
Alhamdulillah. So, when we ended, you were talking about pizza, yeah, then you lost your train of thought, but I’m going to bring it back because it’s relevant to the next question. And that is when Hamza is training, tell me his diet because even though you can’t tell, uh, I’m attempting to go to the gym, even though I’m not really growing anything. So I’m very focused on diet now as well. So help me out.
Tell me what Hamza has for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Does he focus on protein? An average day.
Hamza’s diet
KC: When I prepare for the fight, yes, always eat good food. On about the drinks, I drink only water three months before the fight. We start, sometimes when I can’t, I, with the sugar, just tea, you know. So, because we need to cut the weight and be disciplined.
So, when, when normal, not like now, no, I don’t have a fight. So announce that. So I eat normally, just eggs and this stuff for breakfast, and some avocado, bread.
ZA: This is still breakfast, yeah?
KC: Yeah, still breakfast.
ZA: Okay. So, on an average day, you said you have bread, avocado, egg. That’s your breakfast, yeah? Do you have protein shakes and stuff like that?
KC: No, no. I don’t drink like, they, you see, also, they have good products. They send it to me. I’m lazy to take this stuff. So I just eat normal food and train. So it’s like, they send a lot of products, a lot of different things. You know, vitamin D, omega-3, all the protein, all this stuff for the fighters. They help us as well with it. And, like, I’ve seen like 10 different bottles, and you need to take them at different times. They make me like, “Ah, I eat normal food and fight with.”
ZA: So yeah. Oh, when you say normal food, are you a chicken guy, beef, lamb? Are we talking steaks, or are we talking burgers?
KC: Not. Don’t like so much burgers because it makes a too much heavy belly. For you, give it a heavy belly. Then in the training, it’s hard to train after the burgers as well. Makes you lazy as well. When you eat the good food, not too much. And like, it’s a… This gives you good energy. When you eat too much, and when you eat the burgers, all the fast food, it makes you lazy. He wants to sleep. He wants to be sitting, you know. Don’t let you go anywhere. I like more Um, fish. Fish i like, chicken I like, sometimes beef as well. So sometimes sushi.
ZA: Okay Sushi. Yeah. Really? Yeah, that’s surprising. Not a lot of people go for sushi. So you have beef by itself with rice or with pasta?
KC: Like, different. Sometimes pasta, sometimes beef, sometimes steak as well. Well done? Okay. Well done. Okay. Salad. Are you a salad guy? Not actually, not that much.
ZA: Okay. Okay. What about dinner? Do you have dinner as well?
KC: Yeah, yeah. At the day, at the lunch, I eat more food because you need after training more protein. And, uh, dinner, I eat like not that much because before you sleep, if you eat too much food, it’s like when you day after also your belly is heavy and all in the training. So it feels like when you… How I can explain in English? My English is not that perfect, brother.
ZA: Do you feel kind of lethargic/sluggish?
KC: Yeah, like, slow. Yeah slow, slow. Yeah, that’s the problem. If you eat too much. of course.
When I see food, I want to eat everything. I try to stop myself, and sometimes it’s happening. I eat too much as well. It’s not like every day I can hold myself.
ZA: So, on average, what would you have for dinner? Fish. Fish for dinner? Yeah. Okay. Let’s just say you’re in your training mode now. You’ve got a fight coming up.
KC: I have to be strict.
ZA: Describe your food regime
KC: during the fighting period. Fighting period, like in the morning, always just scrambled eggs. And that’s it with the orange juice. And the lunch is always pasta with chicken. And night time, it’s like fish most of the time. Sometimes chicken, sometimes fish.
ZA: What about these bottles that you get that you need this much omega and this and that?
KC: Sometimes I try to use those a couple of days. Then I become lazy with that and tired. Then I start to eat just normal food. And I always say, “You know, when something is become for me, I think it’s not for me. Say, ‘If Allah wants, win the fight, I will do it. If not, then I will do it.’ So, it’s like they always stay at home. My friends take it.
ZA: So, you’re saying you don’t rely on these things that much. That’s a supplementary to you.
KC: Yes
ZA: Okay. Alhamdulillah.
Khamza on how dealing with criticism and staying humble
ZA: Okay. Hamza, being somebody that is more and more in the public eye- criticism: you’ve got more and more people that want to give their opinions about you. Especially, like, for example, after the whole Nate Diaz not making weight and seeing how the crowd reacts. And then even, you know, post-fight as well. How and what advice would you give and how do you deal with criticism? I see it’s coming off now. So, this is very important, isn’t it? How we handle criticism. So, how have you kind of managed to say, “You know what..”
KC: This is the way. I had before when I start to fight in the UFC. Get a lot of fans and when they started, you know, like a lot of people writing good things, bad things. When you’re famous, when people know you, you’re going to always have people talk good about you and some people bad about you and writing Like good things, bad things. When you’re famous, when people know you, you’re going to always have people talk about good about you and some people bad about you and writing stuff to you in social media. All these things, I was mad.
I was sitting with my brother and said, ‘Why these people? What did I do wrong? Why are they just helping the people doing this?’ That. He said, ‘If they said, “Who are you?” If they’re not talking about you, I said, “What do you mean?” He said, ‘Like our Prophet SAW, there were some people who talked about him as well, but still, do people and he being the best version of human being in this world, human, you know?’ So, ‘Why? Why? Why? Who are you?’ he said to me. So, then I was thinking, ‘If somebody steels, burning people, doing haraam, bad things, you know, speak about our prophet and whatever.’ So, I think in my mind who I am. People, all everyone can speak, think about whatever they want and say whatever they want. You are your own life. They’re not sleeping with you. They’re not coming to your house. They’re not making the money and I make, you know. So, they’re just sitting and writing stuff. I never, I didn’t have time to just go and write bad stuff to the people. You know? I use my time for better things and for my career, for my family. So, of course, I have my friends in social media. When I see I’m happy, I write some stuff, good stuff, you know? I don’t try to find people who are saying bad things to me.
When I see if this guy is saying, writing bad stuff to you, he’s going to die. I’m going to die. So, what’s the matter? He said this, he said that. We all, all of us have to answer that. So, I just pass away these things. So, don’t listen to them and do your job. The best thing you can do against the haters, if you do your job the best way you can do, that’s the hard punch for them.
ZA: That’s it. 100%. So, too much praise these are the haters. What about the lovers? The people that show you too much praise? How do you deal with the immense amount of praise and still stay humble?
KC: Alhamdulillah. Still, you know, I always say it’s like when I do Dua. Like if somebody loves me, if somebody prays for me, please give the same thing for them as well. So, if somebody prays and says, “Give victory to him in his way,” I always pray for them as well when I get the time. I’m happy.
Khamza on Islam
KC: I’m happy that people love me and support me. It gives big motivation for me. Sometimes I go in to see how much people love me and when I see them writing good stuff about me, that, of course, makes me happy. The things that stay making us stay humble, with our money and with that stuff. People know me and it’s Allah. I can’t jump over the rules. So, that rules, He gives us and to be a good human and we’re going to get the paradise after that, insha’Allah. So, this money, all these things that people love, this is not like that important. If you think about Allah, what Allah says. So, that’s why I’m always trying to be, yeah, of course, in the cage.
You people see me crazy and smash everybody, kill everybody. It’s a different thing, you know. When you go, I said, “I have fun. Let me go there and smash the guy and take my money. I’m happy.” And that’s how the sport work for me. Some people thinking like in life also, every day, I go around like I smash everybody, kill everybody. So, it’s not like that. This is my work. I’m a different human in the work and feels. I’m like fighting and gives me energy different. It brings me out some different Hamza as well. Yeah. Alhamdulillah.
Khamza on self-defence in the streets
ZA: Alhamdulillah. Okay. So, Hamza, we’re coming to an end now. So, just one final request. This is for the beginners out there. And I’m a beginner as well. Not Mohammad Hijab. I’m not going to challenge you. I just have one simple request. If I get attacked and I have to defend myself, what one move can you show me that I can do to protect myself? And please don’t break me.
KC: The best way, just turn around brother. If you run fast, it’s good. If you’re not, brother, punch back. So, I don’t know. I always had, I’ve been my other brother pushing me on the street fights as well, when we were young as well. He always said to me, “If some problems come into you, punch first.” So, if he tries to punch you, if you punch him, you get choked. Then, then you run. Gorilla Warfare. Yeah. Punch and dip. Yeah, so.
ZA: Okay. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. To be honest, that is practical. I mean, in that situation, I mean, it’s just survival, isn’t it? Just get out of that situation.
KC: Yeah. It’s not mixed. If you can run and pass this problem, and this is good, man. The people think if you run from the problem, it’s like you become weak, man. It’s not that. So, like, if some guy’s drunk and he wants to punch you and he wants to shoot you and any whatever. Let him be and just go on your way. Let him say whatever he wants. He has to answer about his words, what he says, what he’s doing, you know. And we Muslims, we need to know that all the Muslims, Christians, it doesn’t matter. Like, the good human, he needs to know. The people who want to punch you for no reason, who want to have problems with you for no reason, he’s a stupid. You never can win against the stupid people. And just let him be and go on the way.
ZA: You said you can’t win against stupid people, but you said you can win against Conor McGregor.
KC: So. McGregor is not that stupid guy. He makes too much money, you know.
ZA: So, okay, it’s true. So, there’s a method to the madness. Yeah, yeah. So, Hamza, I wanted to thank you for your time. Alhamdulillah, I was really looking forward to this, and this whole week, I was really kind of going through all of your stuff. And genuinely, what the likes of Dana White, Joe Rogan, and these people have said – and these people don’t just dish out praise – so they have seen something special in you. All the people that have mashaAllah see something special in you.
We pray that Allah takes you from strength to strength, and Allah uses you to benefit more and more people. And SubhanAllah, the fact that you’re here, you know, coming and visiting us and speaking on important causes like you did last week with Palestine, and today, the cause will be about Palestine as well. You know, I just wanted to thank you and, yeah, just show my appreciation, jazakallahu khair.
