Olympic champion Kyle Snyder remains focused on only facing the most elite competition possible as he prepares for the upcoming World Championships in wrestling, he’s had a slight change of heart when it comes to potential matchups against fighters from the UFC.
With a title defense booked at RAF 8, which comes just a month after Snyder beat fellow Olympic champion Akhmed Tazhudinov for the first time, he’s got a lot of options available to him. But after shutting down his interest in any crossover
matches as more and more UFC fighters show interest in competing in RAF, Snyder realized there is one person he would like to challenge.
That’s UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, who comes from a wrestling background but skipped out on competing at the international level to instead focus on his fight career where he’s become one of the biggest stars in the sport.
“I’ve seen clips of him wrestling and I think he’s pretty good,” Snyder said about Chimaev when speaking to MMA Fighting. “He’s similar to Arman [Tsarukyan] where you watch him wrestle and you’re like wow, pretty good. They know what they’re doing. So I think that’s an interesting matchup. Just because obviously he’s a beast in the octagon and I’ve seen him wrestling.
“I’ve seen clips of him wrestling [Abdulrashid] Sadulaev and wrestling other people in the gym and I can tell he’s a very good wrestler. To me, that would be one of the only matches I’d be interested in.”
Of course, Abdulrashid Sadulaev is a multi-time Olympic gold medalist and one of Snyder’s biggest rivals throughout his career so that’s a glowing endorsement that Chimaev works with somebody at that level.
While Snyder maintains that he really only wants to face the best of the best from wrestling, especially with his sights set on a fourth Olympic run in 2028, he believes Chimaev could offer him an interesting challenge in RAF.
“The thing I like about Khamzat is he’s fearless,” Snyder said. “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.
“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.”
Right now, Chimaev is getting ready for his first title defense with a fight booked against Sean Strickland at UFC 328 in May.
But with RAF putting on shows every month, Snyder loves that he can stay busy with matchups there while also preparing to hopefully win his fifth World Championship later this year.
As far as other interesting matchups that caught his attention, Snyder mentioned NCAA champion Wyatt Hendrickson as a potential opponent after they both competed at RAF 7. Hendrickson is the current RAF heavyweight champion and he also has designs on representing America at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Another name that got Snyder’s attention was 2020 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, who is slated to make his debut at RAF 9 in May while also preparing for his first UFC fight in July after signing with the promotion just recently.
Snyder welcomes the chance to test himself against Steveson or Hendrickson but the timing has to work out because his international wrestling career takes place at 97kgs (213 pounds) and he would have to pack on a little more size to deal with Steveson or Hendrickson.
“It’s kind of an interesting balance because you have the RAF matches but then you also have making the World team and wrestling at the World Championships,” Snyder explaind. “So there’s a little bit of timing involved in that. The Final X for us is June 19 where we’ll have to wrestle a best two out three series to make the World team and then the World Championships are in September or October so I don’t really want to be wrestling big guys right before those events. But at the right time, I’d love to wrestle all the guys you just mentioned.”
Snyder vs. Steveson might be one of the biggest matches that RAF could potentially book considering both are Olympic gold medalists from America. Considering they also compete in different divisions, there’s little chance they’d ever cross paths at any typical tournament.
That’s why Snyder loves what RAF is doing because it puts him in a position where he could square off with somebody like Steveson while also working towards his ultimate goal — another Olympic gold medal.
“I think those matches, they definitely typically wouldn’t happen,” Snyder said. “So it’s like I wrestled heavyweight in college so I think a lot of people would be interested in watching me wrestle Gable or Wyatt or some of the heavyweights. Yeah, Lord willing, it will happen in the future.”
