Khamzat Chimaev just scored another impressive victory in the cage. The Chechen athlete came into UFC 279 as a real heel. The fans turned against him after his gross weight cut mishap that resulted in him missing Welterweight by 7.5lbs and coming in at 178lbs.
Not to mention he wasn’t very apologetic about it.
The air was electric when the time came for UFC 279 co-main event. Holland was the first to walkout, Chimaev soon ran to the cage visibly amped. The two were joined by 10 to 15 security guards in the cage. Despite all the fanfare about their conflict the two bumped fists in front of Herb Dean prior to start of round 1.
But as soon as the clock went off Chimaev changed his tune. While Holland approached him with arm raised for customary glove bump, Chimaev faked he would bump and instead landed a lightning fast takedown marking the beginning of the end for wrestling impaired Holland.
https://www.youtube.com/video/KjpWWb6i5og
The two seemed friendly in the cage afterwards which is hilarious considering the havoc they caused this week.
Dana White was peculiarly enthusiastic about Khamzat despite both the weight miss and the cancelled presser.
“I don’t know if anybody expected (Khamzat) to do exactly what he did. You don’t know what to expect from that guy, wrestle him to go out. And this is like his fourth fight that he’s never even taken a punch.”
“He’s an absolute f**king freak of nature. “
“And I don’t think anybody expected that, especially against Kevin, who’s six foot two, you know?”
When asked how do you put Chimaev in a title picture if he misses weight by that much White explained:
“That’s a problem that he missed weight. We got to we got to look at it and figure it out. And, you know, what makes sense is for him to be at 180lbs So we’ll see”
Chimaev was confronted by the theory during the press conference. He was once again unapologetic and explained that he wasn’t looking at Holland’s hands.