Mighty Khamzat hits with such power and ferocity he actually injured his hands and needs time off from UFC

Jesse Holland is among the longest-tenured media professionals in the combat sports news space, covering MMA, professional wrestling and boxing on a full-time basis since early 2004.

Former UFC middleweight champion, Khamzat Chimaev, needs time off from competition because his hands continue to crumble under the abuse of his powerful punches.

“I want to fight,” Chimaev told MMA Fighting. “That’s why I want to fight. It’s not crazy big injuries where you need to be off from sparring. It’s just my hands. I punch hard so I always have problems with my hands and I have to fix it.”

Chimaev, 32, hasn’t scored a knockout in six years — but he did annihilate a heavy bag full of funnies.

“It’s not going to take a long time but people think Khamzat is not going to fight,” Chimaev (15-1) added. “If I do break off, it’s going to be one or two months. Still going to be doing recovery, training.”

Until then, we may be looking at Sean Strickland vs. Nassourdine Imavov 2 for “Tarzan’s” middleweight title.