Khamzat Chimaev insisted he would have ended up in jail by killing Nate Diaz if the pair fought at UFC 279.
Chimaev, 28, was supposed to serve as Diaz's final opponent in the UFC on Saturday night, but the fight was scrapped after Diaz refused to accept a catchweight bout when Chimaev missed weight by 7.5lb. Chimaev went on to submit Kevin Holland inside two minutes in their catchweight fight, whilst Diaz picked up his first win in three years by submitting Tony Ferguson.
Fans labelled the original booking between Chimaev and Diaz as a huge mismatch and accused the UFC of "sacrificing" Diaz in his final fight for the promotion. The two fighters were on opposite ends of the spectrum heading into UFC 279, with Diaz losing his past two fights whilst Chimaev had tallied up five consecutive UFC wins.
