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Khamzat Chimaev was supposed to fight Nate Diaz in a welterweight division main event at UFC 279, but Chimaev missed weight and wound up fighting Kevin Holland instead.
The fighter has bounced back and forth between welterweight and middleweight, but his coach in Andreas Michael says Chimaev’s next bout will happen at middleweight.
“It’s middleweight,” Michael told Submission Radio (transcript via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “He’s going to fight at middleweight. But if the title comes at welterweight, miracles can happen – and they will happen. We will get him down, don’t worry. He’s getting strong for the new weight class.”
Chimaev currently holds a 6-0-0 record in the UFC (12-0-0 overall) and is ranked #3 in the welterweight division.
Coach Michael says that Chimaev is having trouble getting fighters to agree to fight him, but Chimaev is looking to just fight the “top dogs” of the division going forward.
“We’re used to getting fights back-to-back,” Michael said. “And a lot of people say they want it, but they don’t want it. Or they price themselves out. Like, ‘I want this and that,’ and then all of a sudden they want a million dollars when their contract is like $50,000 to show/$50,000 to win). So it’s not logical, either. That’s the fight game. Guys are just doing their work, doing what they need to make a living and to make a name of themselves. I never take these things serious. I just want to progress.
“People say they want to fight, but they don’t want to fight. People price themselves out. There’s some people that, of course they want to fight, as well, but they don’t make sense. There’s a lot of factors (that go) into things. We’re not just going to fight just for the fight’s sake. Things have to pave the way forward. Of course, there’s a lot of people that want to fight Khamzat. And if he just wanted to, he’d just be like, ‘OK, who’s in the top 20?’
“But I think we’re past that, aren’t we? I think we need to get the top dogs right now, or go for a title fight. The top dogs – like, the No. 1 contender or a title fight. And that’s why there’s not a lot of choices out there at the moment, because our spectrum has closed. It was broad before. Now it’s closed down. We’re honing in. We want the No. 1 contender or the champ – preferably the champ. And I think he’s earned it.”
