Khamzat Chimaev insisted he would have fought Nate Diaz for free after their UFC 279 fight was cancelled.
Chimaev was due to serve as the opponent for Diaz's final fight in UFC, but the Chechen missed weight by 7.5lb and Diaz refused to accept a catchweight bout with him. Diaz and was instead booked to fight Tony Ferguson in the main event, whilst Kevin Holland was pulled from his fight with Daniel Rodriguez to face Chimaev.
For the fourth time in his UFC career, Chimaev didn't absorb a single strike as he submitted Holland with a d'arce choke inside two minutes. Diaz also went on to choke out Ferguson on the card and Chimaev insisted he would have given Diaz all of his purse if it meant their fight would have still gone ahead.
"I'm not happy with the change, my weight wasn't that big that it wouldn't work but the doctor said I had to [stop] it," Chimaev said. "I was mad as well, I was thinking what was going to happen. I wanted to fight Diaz, I said I didn't care about my money, I said give all my money to that guy and let him just fight with me. He was talking about being a gangster, but he shouldn't care about the weight. I wanted to fight him all along. Diaz has to thank god that he didn't fight me."
Chimaev didn't rule out another fight at 170lb despite his weight miss and said he will assess the situation with his coach. "I cut my weight down to 170lb because my coach wants me to be one of the best guys in the world and take three belts," he added. "When we go back home, we'll see what my coach says and then I'll listen to him. If he says welterweight then we do that, if he says light-heavyweight we will do that."
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Although UFC 279 marked the first time Chimaev has missed weight, he previously struggled to make the welterweight limit for his fight with Li Jingliang last October. The Chechen's weight miss didn't go down well with fans as he was booed during the ceremonial weigh-ins and for his ring walk against Holland.
Chimaev insisted he doesn't care about what fans think of him, adding: "Who cares about that s***? I don't care I care about my family. I care about my career, I care about my money. One day they're with me, one day they're not with me. I'm a real guy and I like real people, not the fake people who go one way then the other way."
