Khamzat Chimaev lost a split decision to Sean Strickland at UFC
328. | Getty/UFC
Dricus Du
Plessis isn’t buying the notion that Khamzat
Chimaev was hindered by a weight cut ahead of his championship
defeat to Sean
Strickland at UFC
328.
Chimaev looked drained at weigh-ins ahead of the bout, and after
the loss, both Arman
Tsarukyan and his brother, Artur,
claimed that the Chechen fighter’s performance was affected by
the cut. “Borz” appeared to gas out significantly on a failed
takedown in Round 2, though he recovered to make the fight
compeitive in what was ultimately a split-decision defeat.
Du Plessis, who lost the middleweight belt to Chimaev in a lopsided
decision at UFC 319 last August, wasn’t swayed by the
explanations.
“I think this whole weight cut excuse is ridiculous, to be honest
with you,” Du Plessis said in an interview with Fight
Forecast “I think Tsarukyan said he cut 12 pounds in the 24
hours. Those are rookie numbers. Twelve pounds in 24 hours, that’s
not that bad. [46 pounds] in total, over the camp it doesn’t
matter. What matters is that last 24 hours and 12 pounds is not
that much. I’ve definitely done more than that.
“Yeah, sometimes I’ve had bad weight cuts, too. I have. Everybody
that cuts weight has had that experience where the next day you
feel ‘ugh’ and you have a bad cut. One kilogram can make the
world’s difference in a weight cut. I just think using a weight cut
as an excuse when it comes to the fight, even if you did have a bad
weight cut, it’s fine. It’s happened to all of us, but you don’t
Go Go out
and say, ‘I lost the fight because of that.’ No. If you want to
change weight divisions, change weight divisions, but blaming a bad
weight cut is like saying, ‘I lost the fight because I wasn’t fit.’
It’s on you. Be more disciplined. Be more disciplined then and the
weight cut will be easier. Any excuse, for me, when you get into
the octagon, there is no excuse.”
Aura Lost?
Chimaev has been involved in difficult fights before — most notably
against Kamaru
Usman and Gilbert
Burns — but Strickland was his first career defeat. For most of
his UFC tenure, “Borz” has dominated the opposition. As a result of
the showing against Strickland, Du Plessis thinks much of the
Chimaev mystique has evaporated. Chimaev had stated in different
moments that he wants an immediate rematch with Strickland or to
move to the light heavyweight division. As of now, the former
champion’s future is still undecided.
“I think a lot of aura was lost in that, but I mean, Khamzat’s
still an incredible, incredible fighter,” Du Plessis said. “People
don’t necessarily enjoy that fighting style, but he’s so dominant,
he has been. This fight is going to go one of two ways for him. Is
this going to break him or is this going to motivate him to say,
‘Listen, I can’t just rely on my wrestling. I need to fight MMA,’
because that is at the end of the day where this sport is heading.
The wrestling guys have been so dominant that everybody’s starting
to catch up.
“For Khamzat, he said he wants to go to 205. The easier route for
sure, to take off the burden of a weight cut, but I don’t know. I
honestly don’t know. You know with Khamzat, he says one thing, then
he says another thing. He said he’s moving up to 205 to Dana
[White], but now he’s calling Strickland for a rematch. I don’t
think he deserves a rematch. He definitely doesn’t because he has
no title defenses, zero. So it doesn’t justify a rematch at all,
but it’s going to be interesting to see what he does next.”