Khamzat Chimaev’s brother says the UFC 328 weight cut was bad enough that the team had to consider whether Chimaev should fight Sean Strickland at all.
Chimaev lost the UFC middleweight title by split decision to Strickland in Newark, New Jersey, in his first title defense. He started strong, but slowed as the fight went on, and the weight cut became a major talking point after fight night. Artur Chimaev now says the issue was not minor.
“There was a problem with the weight cut,” Artur said, via Championship Rounds. “The question became whether to cancel the fight or take the risk. When there was [2.7 pounds] left, his body shut down… Oxygen deprivation. His body malfunctioned. We had to stop for an hour because his health wouldn’t allow him to continue… Khamzat himself said he didn’t know how he’d fight in that condition.”
See the translated source post below:
https://x.com/ChampRDS/status/2054191944192979081
The claim adds another layer to the fallout from UFC 328. Dana White later said Chimaev told him he did not want to fight at middleweight again after the Strickland loss, while Joe Rogan suggested Chimaev may have been preparing for a move to light heavyweight before the title defense came together. MiddleEasy also covered Brendan Schaub’s breakdown of why Chimaev’s takedowns did not create enough damage against Strickland.
Artur Chimaev Says A Jiri Prochazka Fight At 205 Was Planned First
Artur said Chimaev was preparing for a different path before the UFC asked him to defend the middleweight title against Strickland.
“There was an agreement with the UFC that he would fight Jiri Prochazka at 205,” Artur said. “The contract was already prepared, but then they asked him to fight Sean instead… so he accepted and decided to cut from [231 pounds] down to [185 pounds]. By fight time he had only regained around [11-13 pounds]… Two weeks before the fight he weighed [214 pounds].”
Those figures come from Artur’s side. Chimaev has faced weight scrutiny before, most notably at UFC 279 in 2022, when his miss forced the UFC to reshuffle the top three fights on the card. Chimaev, now a former UFC middleweight champion, remains ranked near the top of the division, while Strickland is again the UFC middleweight champion.
Artur says the team still wants the rematch before any permanent move to 205.
“We’ve requested a rematch with Strickland,” Artur said. “There’s an event in Abu Dhabi in October and we want to do it there.”
“Khamzat isn’t the type of person to move to another weight class and leave unanswered questions behind. We want the second fight. Right now we have no other goals.”
The UFC has not announced a rematch. Chimaev also posted after the loss that he would see Strickland again soon, and that first post-loss message kept the rematch door open. Strickland has the belt, and Chimaev’s camp is pushing for the answer to come in a second fight.
