Colby Covington was shocked to see Khamzat Chimaev on his back at UFC 328.
Chimaev (15-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) lost his middleweight title to Sean Strickland (31-7 MMA, 18-7 UFC) by split decision at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. last month.
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Chimaev slowed down significantly in Round 2 when he wound up pulling guard after Strickland stuffed his takedown. Although he caught a second wind during the fight, Covington was very critical of his cardio.
“It was a weird fight,” Covington told Submission Radio. “He started making all those excuses for the weight cut. It’s like, bro, you already went up a weight class. It’s not the weight cut, man. It’s a discipline cut. It’s a mental type of cut. You’re cut from a different cloth. You can see he kind of has that quitter in him. What was he doing pulling guard in the second round? I could never imagine just accepting guard and pulling guard.
“That’s where girls are supposed to be. Girls are supposed to be on the bottom and the guys come on top into missionary. It was just weird to see him pulling guard so easily. I don’t know. I think he’s mentally weak, and that’s why I’ve always been excited to compete against him because people that I competed against that aren’t mentally strong, I’m going to expose them every time.”
Chimaev struggled in his cut down to middleweight, which prompted him to tell UFC CEO Dana White immediately after the fight that he wants to move up to 205 pounds. However, Chimaev later changed his tune, and is eager to avenge his title loss to Strickland.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Colby Covington ‘could never imagine’ what Khamzat Chimaev showed him
