UFC president Dana White has revealed Khamzat Chimaev was suffering from cramp and was told by a doctor to stop making weight.
Chimaev weighed in 7.5lb heavy for his scheduled UFC 279 main event against Nate Diaz on Saturday night and flipped his middle finger at the press in attendance. He claimed his weight cut was "not bad" and later mocked his weight on Twitter by blaming training partner Darren Till.
Chimaev's failure to make weight led to an almighty scramble at the UFC as they attempted to rescue their pay-per-view card. And White later confirmed Diaz will take on Tony Ferguson while Chimaev will face Kevin Holland with both fights taking place over five rounds.
Appearing on ESPN, White revealed Chimaev had been struggling sufficiently with his weight for the promotion to call a doctor who advised the welterweight stop the cut. "If you saw him yesterday, he was very lean already and he should have come in on weight," said White. "He started to cut weight and he started locking up and cramping and all the things that are from a bad cut. Unlike 10 years ago, we send in a doctor and they determine whether he will keep cutting weight and the doctor told him he shouldn't."
A statement from the UFC read: "Due to recommendation from the UFC medical team, Khamzat Chimaev was advised to stop cutting weight due to weight management issues. "Chimaev will move up to a catchweight bout of 180 lbs and face Kevin Holland in the new five-round co-main event. The new main event will feature two all-action UFC favourites as Nate Diaz will face Tony Ferguson in a five-round welterweight bout."
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Diaz's fight with Ferguson is due to be his final bout with the UFC but he will start the contest as the odds-on favourite having been a huge underdog against rising star Chimaev. Diaz had gone as far to say that he didn't want to fight the Swede just days before the first bell.
“What they’ve got me doing right now is they’re acting like I called for this fight, which I didn’t call for, and I don’t want, and didn’t want, and still don’t want,” Diaz said. And later in the week, he added: "I just f***ing gave up on preparing. Whatever. Beat me. I think that I've been stuck in the cage for a long time and I need to do what I have to do to get the f*** out."
