After three crushing victories in record time, just 66 days, Khamzat Chimaev last year became the name of everyone's lips in the MMA world.

In a short time, he became the Swedish athlete with the second most followers on Instagram (currently 2.6 million) - only surpassed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic - and was booked in against world number three Leon Edwards.

Then the problems began.

The Swedish shooting star was hit by covid-19 and was hospitalized.

- He called me from the hospital and thought he was going to die, said manager Majdi Shammas then to the site Frontkick.

"I want to crush someone"

The health problems became long-lasting and the match against Leon Edwards was postponed, postponed again and was finally canceled.

Now, a little more than a year after his last match, Chimaev is back in the octagon.

On Saturday night, Swedish time, he meets the Chinese Li Jingliang who is ranked eleventh in the world among the challengers to the champion belt in welterweight (77.1 kilos).

- Who is the opponent does not matter.

Ranked or not ranked.

I love to fight and want to crush someone.

But I hope he gives me resistance and manages more than one or two minutes, says the Swede to UFC Arabia.

The UFC 267 gala is decided in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and will be Chimaev's fourth appearance in the UFC.

By comparison, the six-year-old Jingliang is making his 15th appearance in the organization.

"Will eat him"

In total, Chimaev has played nine professional matches and finished all of them prematurely, six via knockout and three via submission.

- I'm hungrier than ever after being outside for a whole year.

It is in the cage that I feel at home and enjoy, he says at a press conference before the match.

- I do not think anyone will want to meet me after this match.

Everyone will be afraid of me again and complain that I did not meet any good fighters or things like that.

I will eat him as I always do.

That, as the 27-year-old did last year, go three matches in just over two months is a high pace.

But then he was also only hit by his opponents on two (!) Occasions.

Now that he is back in the hot air, he is ready to be diligently matched again.

- It's up to the UFC, but I hope so.

I want to go to as many matches as possible this year and next.

ARCHIVE: Watch SVT's report on Chimaev from October 2020

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.

Read more about browser support

Khamzat Chimaev - UFC Swede making comet career Photo: SVT