Khamzat Chimaev struggled with his weight cut before losing to
Sean Strickland. | Getty/UFC
Khamzat
Chimaev was allegedly promised a fight at light
heavyweight.
Chimaev (15-1) had long been hinting at a move up to light
heavyweight. However, Chimaev put his middleweight title on the
line against Sean
Strickland (31-7) at UFC 328
last weekend. Chimaev showed signs of fatigue early in the second
round, completely abandoning his wrestling thereafter. Strickland
outpointed Chimaev on the feet via a split decision, handing “Borz”
his first professional loss. Chimaev had also looked completely
drained at the weigh-ins, even getting accused of missing
weight.
Advertisement
Chimaev’s brother, Artur Chimaev, recently revealed the former
middleweight champion had a terrible weight cut. Chimaev’s body
allegedly shut down with just over two pounds to cut. Artur claims
even Khamzat didn’t know how he would go forward with the
bout.
Artur claims Khamzat was originally promised a fight against
Jiri
Prochazka at light heavyweight before the UFC suddenly asked
him to fight Strickland. While Chimaev decided to cut down to
middleweight, it became clear in the second round that he hadn’t
fully recovered. However, Artur doesn’t want to make any excuses
for the loss.
‘His Body Shut Down’
“There was an issue with the weight cut,“ Artur told SportsRu“ The question became whether to cancel the
fight or take the risk. When there was 1.2 kg [2.7 pounds] left,
his body shut down…Khamzat also said he didn’t know how he could
fight in that state. And in the second round it became clear that
his body hadn’t recovered. There was an agreement with the UFC that
he would fight Jiri
Prochazka [at 205]. The contract was already prepared, but then
they contacted him directly and asked him to fight Sean instead.
Khamzat is the kind of person who doesn’t refuse in situations like
that — so he accepted and decided to cut from [231 pounds] down to
[185 pounds]. What’s happened has happened, and nothing can be done
about it. I don’t want it to look like we’re making
excuses.”