UFC 328 did not go according to plan for Khamzat Chimaev.
“Borz” dropped a competitive split-decision to Sean Strickland in the main event, coughing up his Middleweight title in the process. The Russian wrestler started strong with his dominant wrestling, but he tired quickly and spent most of the back half of the fight striking with Strickland.
Perhaps some of Chimaev’s fatigue can be explained by his drastic weight cut. As a result of potentially fighting up at Light Heavyweight, Chimaev was bulking
prior to the announcement of Strickland as his next opponent at 185 pounds. As a result, Chimaev started his fight camp 46 pounds above the Middleweight limit and looked rough on the scale, making weight with little time to spare.
UFC Lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan was there for the whole process, and he revealed further details about Chimaev’s cut on the Jaxxon podcast.
“He had to cut 13 pounds on the last day,” Tsarukyan explained. “The first nine pounds was easy, and then he felt bad during the night. Then he woke up and said to us, ‘I feel so weak and no energy. I don’t know how I’m gonna cut this last four pounds.’ We pushed him so hard, but he didn’t want to do that … He didn’t want to finish the cut, but me and the team and the coaches pushed him to make weight.”
For all the Light Heavyweight confusion, it’s important to recognize that this isn’t the first time Khamzat has struggled with his weight. In 2022, he missed weight so badly for his planned matchup versus Nate Diaz that he blew up a whole fight card and was exiled from Welterweight entirely. Moving forward, it’s unclear if Khamzat will move up to 205 pounds as initially foretold or if he’ll stick around in pursuit of a rematch.
