Khamzat Chimaev has been warned by UFC legend Henry Cejudo that he must "get his s*** together" after his scandalous weight miss ahead of UFC 279.
Chimaev came in over the welterweight limit by 7.5lb ahead of his first pay-per-view main event against Nate Diaz, and was subsequently placed into a different match-up with fellow division hopper Kevin Holland. He made quick work of Holland in front of a hostile crowd, and is still unsure as to where he will end up in the promotion.
The Swede started his run at middleweight, but moved down to welterweight with just a week's notice to face Rhys McKee after his quickfire win over John Phillips in 2020. He has since jumped between the divisions, although 170lb appeared to be his home despite previous issues with the weight.
Cejudo, who himself has jumped between divisions and faced tough cuts to make the 125lb flyweight limit, fears that now Chimeav has fought above 170lb, he won't go down again. Speaking with Helen Yee, the former flyweight and bantamweight champion implored Chimaev to get serious about the weight or move up.
"You won't come back," Cejudo explained. "If you don't get your s*** together, you won't come back and ever make that weight again. Trust me, even if you have big balls, you won't make it because when you're off that much, just imagine him at 170. He's struggling to probably make 178.
"Like, he gave everything he had. His coach said his tongue was white, vomiting all that other stuff, throwing up fluid. I've been there before. He's going to have to really tweak his training. He's probably training too much and probably allowing his metabolism to eat more and there's a way of doing it where you can still make weight, still feel good while not overworking your body."
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Chimaev claims that he was told to stop cutting weight in the middle of the night as he prepared to face Diaz, and was rebuked when he suggested giving his whole purse to his rival in order to have the division changed. Instead, he took on Holland in the co-main event while Diaz was given a much more favourable match-up with Tony Ferguson.
"They came in my room in the middle of the night, and they told me Khamzat is having problems, health issues," his coach Andreas Michael told the MMA Hour when explaining what happened with Chimaev's weight cut at UFC 279. "So, we all got scared. We called the UFC for the physician.
"And the physician, under close examination, said that he would not advise us that we continue cutting weight. When a doctor tells you that, you get scared, right? I made that decision but I made the decision under the guidance of the physician. He was getting muscle spasms, shaking, vomiting. When he stood up, he was passing out. I was very worried about him.
"He wanted to fight Nate and he said 'Listen the doctor told me I can't continue' and I had to say I am going to stop the weight cut because I can't go against their words. He said the hardest thing for me is when my body shuts down when I am trying to make the weight."
