Khamzat Chimaev struggled to make weight for his UFC 328 title defense against former champion Sean Strickland earlier this month in Newark, which is not surprising when you consider that “Borz” started his fight camp nearly 50 pounds over the middleweight limit.
We’re still not even sure if Chimaev successfully made the 185-pound mark.
Former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, no stranger to extreme (and nearly fatal) weight cuts, was eyewitness to the bulk of Chimaev’s UFC 328 training camp
and claims the former champ put his trust in a weight-cutting “fraud” who nearly got him killed.
“Khamzat looked like an animal for his camp, like he was unbeatable,” Dillashaw told MMA Fighting. “There was no way he was going to get beat, but then you get someone that you’re paying — there’s a lot of frauds in this world — and the way that they made him cut weight was horrible. He wanted to give Strickland $1 million and say, ‘Hey, take it. I can’t make it, I’m going to die.’ And you forget this guy’s got half a thyroid, right? His metabolism is half of a normal man. And so if you’re not treating it the right way, you could kill him. And I really believe he was on the verge of death making that weight cut.”
Dillashaw claims Chimaev is already at a disadvantage as a result of having “half a thyroid.”
“And then to hear the story of what actually was happening to him and him puking up green bile and just all the like crazy shit,” Dillashaw continued. “He should not have made it to the fight. And to see how he performed still, Round 5, Round 4, he still had the better fight in cardio than in Strickland, and Strickland’s supposed to be a cardio guy. Khamzat’s the one going forward landing the bigger shots, right? So Sean won a fight going backwards, throwing a jab? I don’t see it that way. But it makes me realize how tough Khamzat is to do as well as he did on almost dying before getting on that scale. Like I’m saying, almost dying, like scary stories.”
Maybe it was just pre-fight nerves.
Following his split decision loss to Strickland, the 32-year-old Chimaev insisted he was moving up to light heavyweight, only to reverse course a few days later and demand an immediate rematch. Former UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, suggests “Borz” should treat his next fight like a welterweight cut.
“Chimaev’s got to be lighter going into the fight,” Bisping told Casino.org/us. “He’s got to have a regular weight cut, or even no weight cut. He should approach this fight like he was fighting at 170, because the weight cuts take it away from everyone. I think weight cuts are a scourge on this sport. I think everyone should move up a weight class and fight close to their natural weight. You would limit injuries, we would get better performances, fighters would be able to recover easier because they’d be able to take up all the necessary nutrients to recover from training camps. They’d take a better shot and land a better shot, because they’d have more power, but this is the world we’re in.”
Unfortunately, Chimaev (15-1) also missed weight trying to fight at 170 pounds.
