Khamzat Chimaev Teases Move To Middleweight After UFC 279 Weight-Cut Drama

Khamzat Chimaev has sent the MMA community into a frenzy with his tweet where he hinted at a possible move to the middleweight division.

1 8 5 👊🏼💥 pic.twitter.com/urOK6BPayG

— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) September 23, 2022

Chimaev has been longing to try his luck in the middleweight division and get a scrap against champion Israel Adesanya.

He failed to make weight for his welterweight fight against Nate Diaz at UFC 279 but was then hooked up with a fight against Kevin Holland at 185 pounds where he registered a dominant first-round win without absorbing any strike.

Chimaev thought missing weight was not that big of an issue, but UFC President Dana White thinks otherwise.
“It’s a problem,” White told media in a news conference after UFC 279 ended.

“That’s a problem that he missed weight. I don’t know. We’ve got to look at it and figure it out. What makes sense is for him to fight at [185 pounds], so we’ll see.

“It is what it is. It happened. We’ll go back this week and come up with a plan and probably have him fight at [185].”

Adesanya has already shown that he’s open to taking Chimaev. The Stylebender has defeated almost every top-contender in the last few years.

But the middleweight champ will have to go through his old kickboxing foe, Alex Pereira, at UFC 281 in November before locking horns with Chimaev.