UFC 279 had one of the most chaotic lineup shuffles in the promotions history after Chimaev missed weight by over seven pounds for a scheduled welterweight main event bout against Nate Diaz. Officials were able to salvage the card by reorganizing the six fighters in the top three bouts, and Chimaev ended up in the co-main event against Kevin Holland.
Chimaev scored a dominant first-round submission win over Holland, but he now faces the question of whether he will be able to make the 170-pound weight limit. His coach Andreas Michael appeared on The MMA Hour on Monday to discuss the situation and address mistakes that were made in training camp.
“His whole career he’s been fighting at welterweight,” Michael said. “He’s missed weight this time, but it’s not as if he’s been missing weight all the time. Of course, he’s been having a hard time making weight, but he’s always made weight. The point of the thing is that we’re going to make it easier and fight at middleweight some of the fights, but we’re game for welterweight as well.”
“We’re not going to lose our ranking there, hopefully, because we’re so close to a title fight there. Once we take the belt there, we’re going to pursue the middleweight division with all our hearts. Right now, some fights are going to be at middleweight, some are going to be at middleweight, worthwhile fights. But that’s up to the UFC, of course, that’s not up to us.”
“We started this camp heavy,” Michael continued. “That’s what the problem was as well. We got an offer to fight Nate Diaz, and it was earlier than this in August. It was too soon because he was heavy. Then they moved it 10 days up, and I believe we just started too heavy this camp. We should have had a little more discipline and held our weight to a reasonable level, to a reasonable weight close to the one that he’s training at and going into camp. That’s basically about it.”
“We can find a lot of reasons and excuses and all this. At the end of the day — I’m not slagging off Khamzat, he’s a magnificent fighter and I love him to death — but what I’m saying is that it was absolutely unprofessional from our side not to make weight. Anyone who doesn’t make weight is unprofessional, absolutely. I want to [apologize] to Nate’s camp for that. We should have both made weight, and there are no excuses.”
Chimaev has competed at both welterweight and middleweight in the UFC and previously has never come in over either division’s limit.
“He was getting muscle spasms, shaking,” Michael said. “Vomiting. When he stood up he was passing out. I was worried about him.”
“Ever since he got coronavirus and all these health issues, he’s had a little bit of a hard time making the weight,” Michael later added. “Ever since that issue, his body has been a little bit off when it comes down to pushing it to the last drop. But I’m just speculating. Like I said, I’m not a physician, I’m not a doctor or anything like that, and I don’t claim to be one.”
If it’s up to Michael, Chimaev will make the cut to welterweight to challenge for that division’s title.
“I’d pick 170,” Michael said when asked which weight class Chimaev will chase a title in. “I’ll tell you why: Out of respect for the work that we’ve done. We’ve worked our way up there and we ranked ourselves there. We’ve gotten there, it wasn’t just given to us, we’ve gotten there.”
