Khamzat Chimaev has vowed to make Kevin Holland "answer" for his actions during the press conference-cancelling brawl ahead of UFC 279.
The Swede has angered fans this week after first getting involved in a fracas with Holland's team that caused the UFC to cancel their pre-fight media event and then showing up more than half-a-stone overweight for his first main event fight in the promotion against Nate Diaz yesterday in an outlandish display where he seemingly joked about the incident.
The Commission in Nevada wouldn't sanction a bout between Diaz and Chiamev with such a massive weight difference, nor did the American want the fight, and as such a new makeshift card has seen the Swede face Holland in a grudge match instead. Now, the event will be headlined by Diaz vs Tony Ferguson, with Chimaev vs Holland a five-round co-main event.
And the Swede has vowed to punish Holland after explaining to ESPN that it was the short notice of the fight announcement that may have caused him to miss weight. "I took this fight and it was short notice I was heavy because I was supposed to fight in October," Chimaev said.
"Which is why I was lifting weights and building up myself so I don't know what's wrong. Now I get a fight with Kevin Holland, so he'd like to talk to talk a lot of s*** about me, he has to answer for that in the cage."
Chimaev debuted in the UFC at middleweight, quickly taking care of former BAMMA champion John Phillips before moving down the following weekend to face Rhys McKee at welterweight. After missing weight for this fight and with the welterweight title picture in the balance he believes that he will move up and face the winner of Israel Adesanya's next middleweight title defence.
"For me it doesn't matter, I will fight anyone," he added. "I'm not here to cut weight and and die in the bed, I'm here to fight and I want to fight with everybody so now I'm going up and we will see what the guys are going to do. I'll smash that guy and go wait for [Alex] Pereira and [middleweight champion] Israel [Adesanya], who wins."
Who do you think wins; Khamzat Chimaev or Kevin Holland? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Explaining why he missed weight, he detailed how a doctor stopped him from cutting in the middle of the night. He claims to have offered Nate Diaz his entire fight purse to stop cutting as well and fight him at a catchweight, but Diaz turned it down "I don't know, something was wrong with my bod," Chimaev said.
"It's like, I wanted to continue but there comes some doctors, somebody called them so I don't know who was that then they stopped it, so I couldn't do something. I said 'I can do it, just wait' and that was like 4am, so I had a lot of time and they didn't let me know so I said 'okay, so what?' The guy [Diaz] was already scared and they asked if he would fight if I give him all of my money, he wouldn't accept that."
He insist that he won't be going five rounds with Holland, but isn't any more motivated by facing a rival he dislikes more than the American. "For me it doesn't matter, I'll fight everyone," he reiterated. "Everybody already knowns I'm going to smash that guy [Diaz] easy because he's too old.
"I smashed him backstage, he came in with 10 guys and I was alone there so he was thinking like he was playing dancers with 10 people so you see what's happened. I don't think you're going to see five rounds, no, I'm going to go in with that guy and take his head off, smash that guy."
