UFC welterweight Khamzat Chimaev has once again questioned Nate Diaz‘s “gangster” credentials, this time owing to their failed matchup at UFC 279.
This past weekend, original headlining opponents Diaz and Chimaev had their hands raised in Las Vegas on a card that had been shifted late in the day. The changes, which saw six fighters preparing for new opponents on just 24 hours’ notice, came courtesy of a sizable weight miss from “Borz,” who tipped the scales 7.5 pounds over the limit on Friday.
With that, Diaz’s apparent UFC farewell came against Tony Ferguson instead. And in a fitting culmination of his time inside the Octagon, the Stockton native submitted “El Cucuy” in the fourth round.
While Chimaev found similar success in the co-main event, forcing Kevin Holland to tap to a first-round D’Arce choke, much of the discussion post-fight surrounded the Chechen-born Swede’s feud with Diaz, which had seemingly reached a fever pitch backstage prior to Thursday’s cancelled press conference.
And after his victory on Saturday, Chimaev claimed that if Diaz was a ‘real gangster’, their fight would have gone ahead in spite of his indiscretion on the scale.
Chimaev: ‘I Offered Diaz My Whole Purse’
During his appearance at the UFC 279 post-fight press conference, Chimaev reiterated a sentiment that he’s frequently shared since last week’s weigh-ins and that has been obvious in his demeanor and lack of remorse — he doesn’t care about weight.
After noting his frustrations when it became evident that his miss could have seen him fly back to Sweden without another result added to his record, Chimaev claimed that he was willing to hand over his entire purse to Diaz in order to keep the fight intact.
According to Chimaev, the fact that the fan-favorite veteran cared about his weight proved that he’s not a “gangster.”
“I’m a real guy. I like the people who are real, not fake people who go one way and then go the other way,” Chimaev said. “I was so mad (for the weight miss). I was thinking without a fight, I’d have to fly back… I wanted to fight. I got to Vegas and did a lot of work for that. I wanted to fight Diaz. I said, ‘I don’t care about my money.’ It’s almost like, I don’t know how much, but a lot of money.
“I said, ‘Give all my money to that guy. Let him just fight with me.’ He was talking about, ‘I’m the gangster’ and all that sh*t. But (if he was), you don’t care about the weight. And they wanna jump on me when I was (alone) backstage,” Chimaev added. “There was 10 guys, I didn’t give up. I wanna fight them. I don’t care about that, weight, and this sh*t.”
With Diaz seemingly exiting the promotion having fought out his contract at UFC 279, it stands to reason that Chimaev’s chance to headline opposite one of the sport’s biggest superstars has gone begging.
Nevertheless, “Borz” will look to continue on his way towards a record-breaking career inside the Octagon. But he’ll likely need to regain the promotion’s trust before securing his first title shot.
What did you make of Khamzat Chimaev’s comments?