T.J. Dillashaw says Khamzat Chimaev’s rough UFC 328 weight cut was even worse than it looked from the outside.
Dillashaw told MMA Fighting that he was around Chimaev for much of the Sean Strickland camp and thought Chimaev looked dominant before fight week. The former two-time UFC bantamweight champion then put the blame on the way Chimaev’s late cut was handled, saying the damage showed before Chimaev lost a split decision to Strickland at UFC 328.
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“Khamzat looked like an animal for his camp, like he was unbeatable,” Dillashaw told MMA Fighting. “There was no way he was going to get beat, but then you get someone that you’re paying—there’s a lot of frauds in this world—and the way that they made him cut weight was horrible.”
Dillashaw said Chimaev should have worked with Sam Calavitta, the strength and conditioning coach listed among Dillashaw’s longtime team members. Dillashaw argued that the late nutrition and cut ruined the work Chimaev had done in camp.
“What he needed to do, I introduced him to Calavitta and Sam Calavitta is the best in the business,” Dillashaw said. “You can say whatever you want about it, what he does that people don’t do, he’s so smart and the amount of work that he puts into a camp is insane.”
“Unfortunately, they had trusted someone else to do some of his nutrition and weight cut towards the end and it just ruined it all.”
Dillashaw Claims Chimaev’s Body “Just Gave Out” During UFC 328 Cut
Chimaev, a three-time Swedish national freestyle wrestling champion and former UFC middleweight champion, entered UFC 328 unbeaten before Strickland took the title back. His official weigh-in became a major fight-week story, with Strickland later claiming Chimaev did not make weight cleanly. Those claims have not been confirmed or proven.
Dillashaw focused on the water cut. He said the issue was not just suffering through a normal hard final push, but losing too much too fast without the right water intake.
“Well, the water,” Dillashaw said. “I mean, if I could put it to one thing… like your body will shut down. Like you can’t go and lose 10 pounds all at once and not drink enough water to tell your brain and your body to like, ‘Hey, let’s keep losing weight. Let’s keep pushing water.’ If you lose too much of it too fast in one sitting, your body will stop sweating. Yeah, you might only have three pounds to go, but guess what? That’s gonna take you seven, eight hours because you’re dying. You’re straight up dying. Your body’s telling you you’re dying.”
Dillashaw said Chimaev drank only a fraction of what he believes was needed and then tried to force too much weight off at once.
“He drank a quarter of the water he was supposed to drink and then lost four times the amount he was supposed to lose in one sitting and his body just gave out,” Dillashaw said. “And he did not want to make the weight.”
“He wanted to give Strickland $1 million and say, ‘Hey, take it. I can’t make it, I’m going to die,’” Dillashaw said. “And you forget this guy’s got half a thyroid, right? His metabolism is half of a normal man. And so if you’re not treating it the right way, you could kill him. And I really believe he was on the verge of death making that weight cut.”
Dillashaw still did not call the Strickland result a robbery. He said he scored at least three rounds for Chimaev, but acknowledged the fight was close and tied Chimaev’s performance to the weight cut.
“I thought he won at least three rounds with the fourth round even being close,” Dillashaw said. “It was not a robbery. … I’ve said that multiple times. It was a close fight due to Khamzat’s underperformance – massive underperformance.”
He then said the details he heard after the fight changed how he viewed Chimaev’s ability to compete into the later rounds.
“And then to hear the story of what actually was happening to him and him puking up green bile and just all the like crazy shit. He should not have made it to the fight,” Dillashaw said. “And to see how he performed still, Round 5, Round 4, he still had the better fight in cardio than in Strickland, and Strickland’s supposed to be a cardio guy. Khamzat’s the one going forward landing the bigger shots, right? So Sean won a fight going backwards, throwing a jab? I don’t see it that way. But it makes me realize how tough Khamzat is to do as well as he did on almost dying before getting on that scale. Like I’m saying, almost dying, like scary stories.”
Dillashaw said people should view Chimaev’s performance through that lens instead of only focusing on the official result. Chimaev has pushed for another Strickland fight, while UFC CEO Dana White said after UFC 328 that Chimaev had also talked about moving up to light heavyweight. Nothing has been officially booked.
“People need to understand: What he pushed through to fight is impressive,” Dillashaw said. “And to do it with, again, the guy’s got half a thyroid. Really. Do your research and understand what that does to your metabolism, and that’s why weight cuts are hard for him. He just needs to do it the right way.”
Dillashaw’s argument lines up with other post-fight concern around Chimaev’s UFC 328 weight cut, but his version is sharper because he says the cut nearly kept Chimaev from the cage at all. For a fighter whose pressure and grappling usually make opponents look trapped, Dillashaw is saying UFC 328 was decided after a brutal final stretch that left Chimaev compromised before the fight even started.
