Conor believes that other fighters will copy Khamzat Chimaev after he stayed on tonight's UFC 279 card despite showing up over half-a-stone overweight for tonight's main event.
The promotion have scrambled to put together a new main card after Chimaev was allegedly told to stop cutting weight ten hours before tipping the scales at 178.5lb, which is 7.5lb more than he was allowed to face Nate Diaz. He was ultimately put in a makeshift co-main event against Kevin Holland, who weighed in at 179.5lb, while Diaz will now face Tony Ferguson.
Tonight's card will prove Diaz's final night in the octagon, with the American set to test free agency after a decade-and-a-half with the UFC. The plan had seemingly been to put him in a wildly unfavourable match-up with the unbeaten and hard-hitting Chimaev, who has mauled his 11 professional opponents to date.
But he now faces a much more appropriate opponent in the struggling former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson with the Swede in . However, McGregor feels that Chimaev shouldn't have been given any rescheduled bout, and should instead have been removed entirely after showing up wildly overweight for his first pay-per-view main event.
"My opinion they should have pulled Khamzat from the card entirely," McGregor wrote on Twitter, in a rare tweet that wasn't quickly deleted. "Reconfiguring bouts, and with a more favourable bout for the failed cutter, will only make many others in the game follow suit. The smirks on the scale where enough for me. Pull from the card and starve. McG UFC."
McGregor is usually a divisive figure on social media, particularly with some of his more outlandish late night posts which have become known as 'tweet-and-delete' thoughts. However, a cursory glance at the replies indicated that there was a general support for his thought, given Chimaev's egregious weight miss.
Comments with the general sentiment "common McGregor W", "too right Conor" and "agreed" flooded the initial replies, with some fans theorising that Chimaev missed weight on purpose. The unbeaten No.3-ranked welterweight seemingly joked on the scales as he weighed in relatively early and flipped a middle finger at reporters while laughing.
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He then followed up his weight miss by sharing an edited picture of he and pal Darren Till looking comically overweight. He captioned this photo "It’s his fault," and tagged Till with a crying laughing emoji, which further aggravated fans who were excited to see him face Diaz.
Now, he faces rival Holland, who has been calling for a fight with Chimaev for months. The American's grappling has improved in recent fights, but he still appears to have weaknesses that the Swede will be able to exploit and many believe that the match-up is as favourable if not more so for Chimaev than Diaz.
The main card will also now feature a bout between Li Jingliang and Daniel Rodriguez, despite the pair weighing in 8.5lb apart. Fans appear to be more happy with the three match-ups, given that Chimaev vs Holland is a longer-term rivalry and Diaz vs Ferguson showcases two legends around the same level.
