Khamzat Chimaev is certainly making the most of his time in Chechnya.
The UFC star posted pictures of his sparring session with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov’s three teenage sons, Akhmad, Ali, and Adam—the eldest of whom is 16.
The vast majority of the pictures showed the teenagers landing hard shots on Chimaev, including a head kick. The UFC fighter captioned his post, “Brotherly feelings.”
This is not the first time that Chimaev has taken part in sparring sessions with Kadyrov’s family. Over the past few weeks, the no. 3 ranked UFC welterweight has repeatedly trained with the teenagers in their private gym, even in the wake of Kadyrov’s vow to send them to fight in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Chimaev has also had numerous training sessions with Kadyrov, including a May 2022 sparring session that saw the Chechen dictator ragdoll Chimaev for several minutes before attempting to submit him. The duo’s most recent sparring session took place last week and featured former UFC fighter-turned-politician Abdul-Kerim Edilov and Russian rapper Timati.
Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya like his personal fiefdom since rising to power in 2007, is routinely accused of orchestrating human rights abuses including assassinations, abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and purges targeting the local LGBTQ+ community.
Chimaev’s latest posts come in the wake of reports that Kadyrov is forcibly conscripting Chechen men and sending them off as “volunteer” battalions to the frontlines in Ukraine. The Chechen dictator also threatened to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine.