Kyle Snyder recently made his feelings known about the hype around Khamzat Chimaev, issuing a bold challenge. The latter is currently the talk of the wrestling world because of his upcoming bout against his arch-rival Sean Strickland and has recently signed with RAF.
Snyder’s latest appearance on the mat was at the Real American Freestyle (RAF 08), which took place on April 18 at the Liacouras Center of Temple University in Philadelphia. He went up against the 2023 world champion Rizabek Aitmukhan and secured a dominant win by a 12-6 decision to claim the men’s light heavyweight championship title.
He survived a scare as he did not start on a strong note and was trailing at 6-0 while entering the third period. However, he made a smashing comeback, scoring 12 unanswered points to register the victory. During the event, the news of Chimaev officially signing with the RAF was announced and his first match is expected to take place in late May during RAF 09.
Shortly after this announcement, Snyder talked about Chimaev getting a lot of hype because of his upcoming UFC 328 matchup against Strickland on May 9 (at the Prudential Center). Issuing a bold challenge to the UFC Middleweight champion, he said that he would like to wrestle him if he’d like to.
“Everybody is interested in Khamzat, he’s like a big-time celebrity. I’ve seen him train with Sadulaev, and I know Khamzat is a pretty good wrestler. I’d like to compete against him if he’d like to,” said Kyle Snyder.
Chimaev recently issued a $200k challenge to Olympic champions to survive his sparring ahead of his UFC 328 showdown.
Kyle Snyder opened up about why Khamzat Chimaev would be an interesting challenge for him in RAF
After winning the RAF 08 challenge, Kyle Snyder spoke to the media, where he opened up about his future bouts and weighed in on competing against Khamzat Chimaev. Opening up about his thoughts about the UFC middleweight champion, he said that he would be an interesting match for him. Lauding Chimaev’s attitude while wrestling, he said:
“The thing I like about Khamzat is he’s fearless. At least he competes without fear and he competes like he’s the alpha. I think he would take that same attitude into a wrestling match. His conditioning is obviously one of his strongest attributes and just his will to win. I’d be excited. I think it would be fun to get ready for,” said Kyle Snyder.
He added:
“It would be interesting. We’ll see. He’s got a lot going on as well. We’ll see if it could ever work out but I think it would be an exciting matchup for people to see and just an interesting crossover amongst fighting.”
Kyle Snyder is currently eyeing his position at the 2028 LA Olympics and is also gearing up for the 2026 World Championships.
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