Chimaev back to welterweight? Calls out Covington after White confirms UFC unsure about his weight

Adam Miller

UFC 279 will forever be remembered as the card where 3 main events were reshuffled in a historic last day scramble. This is all due to Khamzat Chimaev missing weight by staggering 7.5 lbs.

In the fall out from the miss, Chimaev expressed his desire to keep going at 185lbs on twitter.

However he’s since reportedly changed his mind and expressed desire to face former welterweight challenger Covington.

Chimaev was anticipated to go up to 185 pounds. However, Chimaev didn’t fall out of UFC’s grace thanks to an impressive performance. He submitted Kevin Holland barely over two minutes into the first round.

 

There haven’t been many updates on Covington since he defeated his longtime adversary Jorge Masvidal in March. There have been rumours that he was seriously injured in that infamous altercation with Jorge Masvidal, but UFC president Dana White has already refuted that.

Chimaev has only competed once at middleweight in the UFC, he knocked out Gerald Meerschaert in only 17 seconds.

Since Covington is ranked No. 2 and Chimaev is No. 3 in the welterweight rankings, a matchup between the two might decide who would face the champion after Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman rematch in Paris.

Following his most recent weight loss, White said that UFC matchmakers were contemplating whether to let Chimaev compete at welterweight again. Before his submission victory over Li Jingliang in October, Chimaev had trouble making the 170-pound limit.

White told reporters,

“There’s obviously 170 and 185 pounds. There was a big beef today at matchmaking whether he could make 170 pounds, whether we should even let him make 170 pounds again.”

“Those are all the things that we’re kicking around right now. I’m in the middle. I’m in the ‘what does he want to do?’. Where does he want to be, and what does he want to do?”

“Does he want to make 170 and go for the title at 170, or does he want to go to 185 and go for the title there? That was the big debate we had in the matchmaking meeting.”

“One guy said one thing, one guy said another thing and then I said, ‘What does he really want?’ Somebody get in there and figure out what he really wants to do, and let’s figure it out”