Tony Ferguson is claiming that Khamzat Chimaev ‘purposely’ missed weight at UFC 279.
UFC 279 will definitely go down in the books for the chaos that lead up to it.
If not for the pre-fight press conference that was canceled following backstage altercations between multiple parties or the fact that the main event fighter, Khamzat Chimaev, missed weight by almost 8 pounds, creating a domino effect of new fights having to be made to save the promotions Saturday night fights, UFC 279 will be remembered.
It was to be Tony Ferguson (26-8 MMA) vs Li Jingliang (19-8 MMA) in the welterweight co-main event. It was to mark the 38 year olds first return to the welterweight stage since 2011. Through the shake-up last Saturday, Ferguson ended up fighting in the main event against Nate Diaz (22-13 MMA).
The outcome was a win for Diaz, by submission in round 4, marking his last fight under his current UFC contract.
Ferguson has since weighed in on the fact that he believes Chimaev purposely missed weight at UFC 279.
“El Cucuy” had this to say at the post fight press conference about the debacle and decision to match him up with Diaz (h/t MMANews):
“Well, we didn’t have the president calling Dana and Dana saying ‘Hey, are you in kid?’. But when it went down to it, it was kind of like a reminder of the pandemic, you know what I mean? You’ve got two Russians, like Nate said. You’ve got Khabib who ran away from me at UFC 209.”
Continuing Ferguson said:
“And at the last one, I forget which number it was, it was like a whole bunch of ‘em right?…And then you have Khamzat, purposely missing weight. I’m gonna be real, like – starting all that shit, it could have been a facade – so he could have f**king, just whatever.”
It’s true that Ferguson was scheduled to fight former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov on several different occasions in the UFC, but ultimately a fight never came to fruition for a number of reasons.
Ferguson, following his loss to Diaz, is now on a five-fight losing streak.
Do you agree with Tony Ferguson that Chimaev ‘purposely’ missed weight at UFC 279?
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