LAS VEGAS – Khamzat Chimaev wasn’t impressed at all by what he saw from Nate Diaz.
The UFC contender thought Diaz looked poor in his performance on Saturday night, despite Diaz finishing veteran Tony Ferguson with a guillotine choke in the main event of UFC 279.
Chimaev (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) was supposed to fight Diaz, but ended up fighting and submitting Kevin Holland in the co-main event, after he missed weight by 7.5 pounds for on Friday morning for what was supposed to be a welterweight bout with Diaz.
Chimaev says the result would’ve been much different for Diaz, if their fight came to fruition.
“If I fought him, I’d kill him,” Chimaev told reporters at the UFC 279 post-fight press conference. “I’d be in the jail, so maybe I have to be happy.”
But it is not just that Chimaev is confident in his skills. He thought that the 37-year-old Diaz looked bad in his showing against Ferguson and even thinks that the man de defeated, Holland, would’ve run through Diaz.
“Did you see that fight?,” Chimaev said. “Did you see the guys get tired? Did you see how they kicked, how they punched? How they wrestled, how they grappled? The guys is old. I’m the young guy. I’m the killer. I don’t understand what the people talking about.
He later added,
“You see Diaz fight so terrible. … I don’t understand thinking about they can win against me. That guy Kevin Holland, tough guy. He’s a strong guy and much better than Diaz, you know. If him and Diaz are fighting, Holland would kill him. So I finished that guy so easy, first round, second minute, I don’t know. So yeah, Diaz has to thank God he didn’t fight me.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 279.
