Rare photos of a young Khamzat Chimaev without his beard

These days, UFC fighter Khamzat Chimaev is best known for smashing his opponents in the cage. However, before his rise to stardom as one of the best MMA fighters on the earth, he was just like the rest of us – an awkward kid. Here, we’ve dug through the archives to find pictures of a younger Khamzat Chimaev without his beard. These are taken from his childhood and earlier MMA days.

Interestingly, some of these pictures show the reason why Chimaev is such a tough fighter. The reason for this is that some of them are taken from his younger days which show him wrestling. It’s no secret that Chimaev is a top wrestler and uses grappling and takedowns to win fairly easily. This is why he’s also known as ‘Borz’, which translates to ‘Wolf’ because he’s like a ruthless predator hunting his prey inside the octagon.

Khamzat Chimaev is on the right with a friend. Throughout his childhood, he often had long hair.

In this picture, notice Chimaev’s muscle gain. Even these days, his arms don’t look as big. He’s also wearing the scarf of his favorite soccer team.

Throughout his younger years, Chimaev was involved in sports. Here, he is in the grey vest.

Even more evidence of his long hair, which is miles away from his trademark buzzcut.

As seen, Chimaev has loads of medals around his neck even as a kid. We can assume they’re from wrestling.

Khamzat Chimaev sporting a dodgy haircut and equally unusual coat.

Chimaev wearing a Sochi t-shirt. Back in 2014, the Winter Olympics were held there which is when Chimaev was living in Russia.

In his earlier days, Khamzat Chimaev didn’t have a beard and he looks very different compared to his current look.

Another shot of Khamzat Chimaev without his beard. Here, he gets his hand raised after yet another MMA victory.

A younger Chimaev.

Doing what he does best. For Khamzat, before MMA there was wrestling.