Don’t expect Khamzat Chimaev to take on Robert Whittaker anytime soon.
Chimaev was at the center of controversy going into UFC 279. He was expected to go one-on-one with Nate Diaz inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 10. That plan went awry as Chimaev missed weight, which led to the main card being reshuffled.
As a result, Chimaev ended up fighting Kevin Holland, while Diaz did battle with Tony Ferguson. Chimaev scored a first-round submission over Holland, while Diaz submitted Ferguson in the fourth round.
During the post-fight press conference, Chimaev discussed possibly fighting at middleweight next and he shared why he doesn’t want to fight Whittaker.
“I like that guy, so I don’t wanna fight good guys,” Chimaev said. “I need some bad guys, so I wanna fight some bad guys.”
UFC President Dana White told reporters following UFC 279 that he believes Chimaev would be best served to compete at middleweight (h/t MMAFighting).
“It’s a problem,” White said. “That’s a problem that he missed weight. I don’t know. We’ve got to look at it and figure it out. What makes sense is for him to fight at [185 pounds], so we’ll see.
“It is what it is. It happened. We’ll go back this week and come up with a plan and probably have him fight at [185].”
With that said, the UFC boss isn’t ruling out Chimaev being able to stick around in the welterweight division.
“After he just didn’t make weight, I don’t know,” White said when addressing Chimaev’s future. “There’s a lot of possibilities for him. Possibly at 170 or at 185.”
Chimaev has been on quite a run and figures to be close to a UFC title opportunity, but weight has suddenly become a talking point with him. It’ll be interesting to see how the UFC plays this one out.