Arman Tsarukyan reveals Khamzat Chimaev nearly quit brutal UFC 328 weight cut. New details have emerged about just how difficult fight week was for Khamzat Chimaev ahead of his UFC 328 title loss.
According to lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan, Chimaev came dangerously close to quitting his weight cut before even stepping onto the scale. Speaking after UFC 328, Tsarukyan revealed that Chimaev was physically drained and mentally exhausted during the final stages of his cut to 185 pounds, to the point where he reportedly did not want to continue.
Tsarukyan said Chimaev had to shed pounds during camp to make the middleweight championship limit for his title defense against Sean Strickland. Tsarukyan explained that the final stage of the cut was where things became especially difficult, with Chimaev feeling so weak that he nearly walked away before his team convinced him to finish.
“From Day 1 of his training camp, he cut 40 pounds,” Tsarukyan told the JAXXON podcast. “[For fight week,] he had to cut 13 pounds. Tuesday, he had to cut, like, 12 or 13 pounds. First nine pounds was easy, and then he felt bad during the night, and then he woke up and said to us, ‘I feel so weak and, like, no energy. I don’t know how I’m going to cut this last four pounds.’ But we just pushed him so hard. “He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to finish the cut, but the team, me and the coaches, we tried to push him to make the weight, and he made weight.”
One reason why Chimaev had to cut down from such a high number was Chimaev gearing up for a move to 205 pounds instead of a middleweight title defense. Both Tsarukyan and UFC commentator Joe Rogan have promoted this narrative, though it’s unclear if this was an official discussion had between Chimaev and the UFC.
“He made the weight, because before the official weigh-ins, you go to one more weigh-in, the UFC checks you, your weigh-in, and he was good there, and then they let you go,” Tsarukyan said. “If there’s 186 on the automatic scale, you cannot go to the official one.”
Tsarukyan is convinced the outcome against Strickland could have been very different if Chimaev had not gone through such a brutal weight cut. Following the loss, he also made it clear that he disagreed with the judges’ scorecards.
In his view, Strickland did not do enough to leave with the middleweight title.
“The weight cut was hard, it was a rough weight cut,” Tsarukyan said. “The next day in the morning he felt good, so I asked him. But in the fight, we saw after the first round, he got tired, and he just strike. Yeah, probably, most likely it’s the weight cut. I haven’t talked to him yet about the fight, weight cut, and how he felt during the fight, most likely it’s the weight cut because here in the training he was doing sparring five rounds, non-stop, beat everybody, wrestle 25 minutes.
“I felt like after the first round I thought he could do four more rounds the same and it’s our fight, but I still think it was a close fight, but in a close fight the champion’s got to be a champion, and the contender got to take the belt when you win good, not just a tight fight and they give it to the contender.” Khamzat Chimaev made weight, but according to Arman Tsarukyan, the battle had already started long before fight night.
