#UFC279 has a new top part of its card, per UFC president Dana
White on the @SportsCenter
Instagram.— Diaz vs. Ferguson
— Chimaev vs. Holland
— Li vs. Rodriguez— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi)
September 9, 2022
Khamzat
Chimaev’s failure on the scales has forced the Ultimate Fighting Championship to scramble in
unexpected ways.
Advertisement
On Friday, Chimaev
tipped the scales at 178.5 pounds at the early UFC
279 weigh-ins, for 7.5 pounds above the non-title welterweight
cap. His headlining matchup against Nate Diaz, who
weighed 171 pounds, has been scuttled as a result, as first
reported by BJPenn.com.
In the new five-round UFC 279 main event, per UFC President Dana
White on UFC’s Instagram page, Diaz (20-13) will now be squaring
off Tony
Ferguson (25-7), who also weighed in at welterweight. This
event, which remains a pay-per-view will carry on at the T-Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Diaz will be looking to get back on track after a pair of defeats
at 170 pounds against Jorge
Masvidal and future champ Leon
Edwards in 2019 and 2021, respectively. The lone win for the
Stockton, Calif., native in the last five years came against
Anthony
Pettis, whom he topped on the scorecards at UFC 241 in 2019.
Throughout a UFC career that began by winning the fifth season of
“The Ultimate Fighter” in 2007, Diaz has topped the likes of
Conor
McGregor, Donald
Cerrone, Takanori
Gomi and Gray
Maynard on his way to becoming a fan-favorite.
Ferguson is also looking to right the ship, as he has dropped four
fights in a row dating back to 2020. Atop UFC 249, Ferguson faced
Justin
Gaethje for the interim strap, and he succumbed to a punch in
the fifth round to put an end to a 12-fight win streak that
included a brief interim championship reign. Ferguson’s unbeaten
stretch at that time listed names including Rafael dos
Anjos, Pettis, Cerrone and Kevin Lee on
his ledger. Both men celebrate career finish rates of 80%. They
have, however, combined for exactly one win in their last eight
fights.
With Chimaev bumped out of the marquee position, the promotion has
shifted the main card around to facilitate his remaining on its
billing. After negotiations on Friday, Kevin
Holland (23-7, 1 NC) has accepted a 180-pound catchweight match
against Chimaev (11-0) in the co-main spot. This comes despite an
earlier
Instagram Stories post from Holland where he wrote, “New fight
terms. I’m only taking the fight [with Chimaev] if it’s [the] main
event and five rounds. Other than that, not fighting. Boom, gone.”
White has stated that this co-headliner will be a five-round
match.
As Ferguson will no longer be facing Jingliang
Li, and Holland is not fighting Daniel
Rodriguez, the two remaining competitors of Li and Rodriguez
were left without opponents. Weighing in within 10 pounds of one
another, the organization has decided to match them up for another
180-pound catchweight. When offered, Rodriguez accepted immediately
per TSN,
although he weighed in at 179 pounds expecting to take on Holland
at that weight. White has since confirmed this Li-Rodriguez bout
will serve as the “featured fight” on the main card. The previously
planned main card matches, a 205-pound opener between Johnny
Walker and Ion
Cutelaba, and a 140-pound catchweight contest as of Friday
between Irene
Aldana and Macy
Chiasson, will remain as planned on the lineup.