Former UFC champion Henry Cejudo sees a big problem with Khamzat Chimaev.
People are still talking about the debacle that went down prior to UFC 279. Khamzat Chimaev came in 7.5 pounds over the welterweight limit for his fight with Nate Diaz. Due to the missed weight, the main card was shuffled around and Chimaev found himself in a bout with Kevin Holland instead. After the failed cut Chimaev was unapologetic and didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that he failed to reach 170 pounds. He went on to win his fight against Holland but his future at welterweight seems unclear at the moment. He mentioned interest in fighting at both welterweight and middleweight in the future but former two-division champion Henry Cejudo thinks that making 170 might never happen again.
Henry Cejudo had a very successful UFC career, winning two championships in two different divisions before retiring in 2020. Cejudo now spends most of his days training other UFC fighters and discussing hot topics within the UFC and MMA world. He was interviewed by Helen Yee in Las Vegas this weekend where he spoke a bit about Chimaev, the failed week cut, and the potential of him ever making 170 pounds again.
“If you don’t get your sh-t together, you won’t come back and ever make that weight again, he said. “Trust me, even if you have big balls, you won’t make it because when you’re off that much, just imagine him at 170. He’s struggling to probably make under 178 now, he gave everything he had. His coach said his tongue was white, vomiting and all that other stuff, throwing up food, I’ve been there before. He’s gonna have to really tweak his training. He’s probably training too much. That’s probably allowing more of his metabolism to eat more. And there’s a way of doing it, where you can still make weight still feel good while you’re not overworking your body because even overworking your body you can also miss the weight because I used to do that. That’s one reason why I say that.”
Henry Cejudo wants to see more out of Khamzat Chimaev
Cejudo thinks that Chimaev needs to change up many things in his training camp if he has plans to fight at welterweight again. Recently he was seen training in Las Vegas but perhaps a transition to Arizona to work with Cejudo could be a good option. Cejudo has been training some of the best in the UFC recently including Jon Jones Deiveson Figueiredo, and Zhang Weili. Cejudo spoke about how he wanted to see Chimaev taken to the later rounds at UFC 279 but did not get the chance.
“I want to see him do work because if he doesn’t tap out Kevin Holland, how does he look like and that third, fourth, fifth round? I wanted to see him up against a competitor that was gonna really challenge him, does anyone know how good he really is?” he said. “But Kevin has got a big hole and it’s called wrestling. And it was easy work for him that night, but I also saw his breathing was getting pretty heavy which I thought could be a little suspect too for Chimaev.”
Despite the failed cut, Chimaev still seems to be on a fast track to a world title whether it be at welterweight or middleweight.
Watch the entire interview here:
