The unprecedented scenes and actions before UFC 279 continued and today at the official weight-in. Khamzat Chimaev didn’t make the weight limit for welterweight and was more than 3kg. above it. That’s probably the biggest missed weight in the history of the organization.
That brought the hard decision to change all the main fights just to save the night.
So now Chimaev will face Kevin Holland, with whom they got physical yesterday backstage, in a co-main event in five rounds. Nate Diaz will fight Tony Ferguson in a “long dreamed, never happend battle” of the two veterans.
Khamzat Chimaev embraced the hate after missing weight. 😳
He had STRONG words for Kevin Holland, too.
Full story: https://t.co/RUPcp3Eitz pic.twitter.com/hIWfp3XNMe
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) September 10, 2022
The crowd in the building met Khamzat with constant booing, and he gave them middle fingers, obviously not carring much for their opinion. When he was asked what let to the situation he answered:
“I don’t know what happened. I just want to continue. I don’t care against whom, i am here to smash everybody!”
Holland hit the scale on 81 kg. for his catchweight bout with Daniel Rodrigues. Chimaev was almost the same weight with 80,4 kg. So for Rodrigues the only possible opponent was Li Jingliang who was supposed to fight Tony Ferguson. That means that Li Jingliang would fight almost 4 kg. hеavier fighter in the face of Rodrigues.
Diaz and Ferguson are with the same weight – 77kg. The two were supposed to meet on several occasions, but the fight had never materialized. They showed mutual respect and there wasn’t any tension on the face off. Anyway, Diaz wasn’t so nice when addressed his message to Chimaev.
“Real Gs come from California. America, motherf*cker.” 🇺🇸
Nate Diaz had a final message before stepping into the octagon for the #UFC279 main event vs. Tony Ferguson.
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— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) September 10, 2022
“Me and Tony have been here for a long time and we should’ve fought a long time ago. Khabib was b***ch a*s afraid of him just like this m****r f***r is afraid of me. Yesterday we caught his b***h a** backstage and now he is not making weight. You guys have to know what it is. Real Gs come from California, America, m***r f*****s!”
Diaz also said he is ready to fight Khamzat anytime, after it’s already clear he is not fighting him in the Octagon.
