Former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev barely made it to the scale at the UFC 328 official weigh-in and nearly withdrew.
Before Khamzat Chimaev lost to Sean Strickland in the UFC 328 main event, he nearly lost the battle to the scales at last Friday’s official weigh-in.
Chimaev, who entered UFC 328 unbeaten in his career, looked depleted and drained on the scale as he was the last fighter to successfully weigh in. Despite the obvious troubles, Chimaev successfully made the championship weight to make the Strickland main event fight official.
Chimaev’s brother later admitted that the now-former UFC middleweight champion’s body ‘nearly shut down’ during the weight cut, after dropping almost 40 pounds in camp. While Chimaev successfully made it to the scales, disaster nearly struck the UFC 328 card.
Arman Tsarukyan: Khamzat Chimaev nearly quit UFC 328 weight cut with minutes to spare
In a recent appearance on the JAXXON Podcast, Tsarukyan shared what it was like behind closed doors as Chimaev experienced the worst weight cut of his career.
“From Day 1 of his training camp, he cut 40 pounds,” Tsarukyan said of Chimaev. “[For fight week,] he had to cut 13 pounds. Tuesday, he had to cut, like, 12 or 13 pounds. First nine pounds was easy, and then he felt bad during the night, and then he woke up and said to us, ‘I feel so weak and, like, no energy. I don’t know how I’m going to cut this last four pounds.’ But we just pushed him so hard.
“He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to finish the cut, but the team, me and the coaches, we tried to push him to make the weight, and he made weight.” (h/t MMA Fighting)
Tsarukyan went on to respond to speculation that Chimaev didn’t actually make weight ahead of UFC 328, and was only allowed to move forward due to a scale issue.
“He made the weight, because before the official weigh-ins, you go to one more weigh-in, the UFC checks you, your weigh-in, and he was good there, and then they let you go,” Tsarukyan said of Chimaev.
“If there’s 186 on the automatic scale, you cannot go to the official one.”
Despite UFC CEO Dana White claiming that Chimaev told him he plans to move to light heavyweight, his team says differently, as Chimaev allegedly wants an immediate rematch after UFC 328. Time will tell if Chimaev will get his desire fulfilled, and if he’ll be better prepared physically for the cut.
Who should Khamzat Chimaev fight next after UFC 328? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!