All things considered, Dana White doesn’t think Khamzat Chimaev had a bad fight week for UFC 279.
Chimaev was on many headlines last week ahead of his return to the octagon, and not all, were positive ones – at least according to some. Yet, despite all the things that went down in the days ahead of the UFC pay-per-view in Las Vegas, White is still very high on the unbeaten contender.
“It was a nutty week, I mean, the whole week was nutty in every way that it could possibly be nutty, but I wouldn’t say by any stretch that it was a bad week for Khamzat Chimaev,” White said at a press conference following Dana White Contender Series 54 on Tuesday. “He came in, and you all know what I think about Kevin Holland and what I think about him as a person and as a fighter, and God damn, Khamzat made that looked easy and very quick. He’s an absolute beast.”
Chimaev dominated Holland in their co-main event bout, adding another impressive win to his record. But that wasn’t supped to be Chimaev’s opponent.
The Chechen fighter was supposed to meet MMA star Nate Diaz on the top billing of the card, but he missed weight by 7.5 pounds on Friday morning. His failure to make the welterweight limit promoted chaos that forced UFC to shuffle three matchups on the card, including his.
On top of that, Chimaev got into an altercation on Thursday with Holland, which spewed and ended up involving other fighters on the card – along with their teams. The incident forced the cancelation of the UFC 279 press conference, and the incident is now being investigated by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
