Khamzat Chimaev’s lip looks the way it does because of a serious childhood accident, not a surgery or a birth condition.

What actually happened to his lip?

When he was about two years old, Chimaev fell down a staircase at home and hit his face on hard concrete.

In interviews, he’s said that:

  • His lip was “ripped” open.
  • A couple of his teeth were knocked out.
  • His nose was broken, and he still can’t fully breathe through his right nostril.

He doesn’t remember the fall himself because he was so young, but his mother later told him the details of the incident.

Why does it look like that now?

The injury left a permanent scar on his upper lip, which is why it can sometimes look similar to a cleft lip or like it healed unevenly in photos and on TV.

The same accident also likely caused long‑term nasal issues (often described as a deviated septum), which is why he has said he still struggles to breathe from one side of his nose.

What do fans and forums say?

On MMA forums and Reddit, fans often ask “has his upper lip always been like that?” and other users usually reply that it comes from the childhood stair accident, not from fighting damage or cosmetic work.

Some people initially assumed it was a cleft lip, but those discussions usually get corrected with the story from his interviews and articles.

Is it from UFC fights or recent news?

No major outlet reports it as a fresh or fight-related injury; it’s consistently described as an old childhood scar that has simply become more noticeable as he’s grown more famous in the UFC.

It still causes him some functional issues (like breathing through his right nostril), but it’s not reported as a new or worsening condition in recent coverage.

TL;DR: If you’re wondering “what happened to Khamzat Chimaev’s lip?” — it’s a permanent scar from a nasty fall down the stairs when he was a toddler, which ripped his lip, damaged his teeth, and broke his nose, not something that recently happened in a fight.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.