Tsarukyan doesn’t think coach Sam Calavitta is to blame for
Khamzat
Chimaev’s loss against Sean
Strickland.
Chimaev lost his middleweight title to Strickland in a huge upset
at UFC 328
last month. Chimaev look visibly fatigued after a sloppy takedown
attempt in the second round and wasn’t nearly as dominant with his
wrestling thereafter. “Borz” also had a terrible weight cut, with
many even accusing him of missing weight.
Chimaev (15-1) was doing his strength and conditioning training
under coach Calavitta at The Treigning Lab aka the Garage in
California. Chimaev’s close friend Tsarukyan and other fighters
like Khalil
Rountree also joined him in camp at the Garage. The team,
including athletes from different sports, were seen undergoing
gruelling training sessions under coach Cal. Calavitta has faced
severe backlash from fans and pundits following Chimaev’s first
professional loss. Calavitta is being accused of overtraining
Chimaev with a regimen which is not specifically efficient for
MMA.
Professional Responsibility
However, Tsarukyan (23-3) believes coach Calavitta is not to be
held responsible for Chimaev’s loss. According to Tsarukyan,
Chimaev’s last training session at the Garage was hardly 20
minutes. Tsarukyan also hints that athletes at the highest level of
the sport should know their limits well and can just opt out of
training when tired.
“When he wins everybody says, ‘Oh yeah, [coach] did a good job.’ He
lost, everyone is saying he’s doing the wrong things and that they
overtrained,” Tsarukyan said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “But Khamzat’s last training
session in the garage was only 15-20 minutes. At this level, you’re
a professional. You gotta to control yourself. If you feel tired,
just skip the training.”
Another student of coach Cal, former UFC bantamweight champ
T.J.
Dillashaw, hinted that Chimaev went somewhere else for his
weight cut. Dillashaw believes Chimaev’s weight cut went wrong
because he gave the responsibility to someone else other than
Calavitta.
Arman
Tsarukyan pushes back on criticism of strength and conditioning
coach Sam Calavitta following Khamzat
Chimaev’s loss:“Because he lost, everyone is saying he’s doing the wrong things
and that he overtrained. But Khamzat’s last training session in the
garage was only 15-20… pic.twitter.com/tmOlg0dxWc— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
June 1, 2026