Khamzat Chimaev’s first defense of the UFC Middleweight Championship didn’t exactly go according to plan at UFC 328, with the “Chechen Wolf” losing his title to Sean Strickland via a split decision. Given the razor sharp nature of the decision, many fans thought it would only make sense for Chimaev and Strickland to run it back at a later date to determine a true, concrete winner, but that isn’t going to happen according to UFC President Dana White.
During the UFC 328 post-show press conference, White revealed that he had a brief interaction with Chimaev after the fight, with the former champion stating that he has finished his time in the middleweight division. “He literally walked up to me after the fight and said ‘I want to move up [to light heavyweight]. I don’t want to fight in this weight class anymore.’ Him moving up is exciting.”
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Chimaev looked to have had a lot of trouble in getting down to 185 pounds for the fight with Strickland, to the point where some claimed the fight was rigged in favor of Chimaev as they didn’t believe he made weight but didn’t want to cancel the fight. White claimed Chimaev did make the weight, using Jeremy Stephens as an example of the theory of Chimaev missing weight being ridiculous as Stephens did miss weight for his fight with King Green. With UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Carlos Ulberg currently injured with a torn ACL, moving to 205 pounds could be a way for Chimaev to join the elite group of fighters who have won UFC gold in two divisions, and he would also become one of only a handful of fighters to fight in three divisions.
Please credit the original source when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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