Khamzat Chimaev once said the consequences would have been dire if a canceled matchup from his UFC tenure had reached the Octagon.
Chimaev is finally set for his first title shot this Saturday, as ‘Borz’ looks to continue the momentum from his undefeated run in MMA all the way to the top of the UFC’s middleweight division.
In the main event of UFC 319 on August 16, Chimaev will challenge Dricus du Plessis, looking to be the first to defeat the South African in the promotion and bring his reign to an end in his third defense.
To reach the 185-pound gold, the Chechen star had to get through a pair of former UFC champions in Kamaru Usman and Robert Whittaker. Before that, Chimaev had been first targeting the welterweight title but a huge misstep on the scale brought that to an end prematurely in 2022.
Chimaev is thankful it did — for the sake of one veteran fighter’s health…
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Why Khamzat Chimaev was ‘happy’ Nate Diaz fight collapsed
After Chimaev defeated Gilbert Burns in a three-round war, many believed he was one more win away from a shot at the 170-pound belt. He looked set for the chance to achieve that in his first pay-per-view main event against one of the UFC’s biggest stars in 2022, Nate Diaz.
But a 7.5-pound weight miss threw the UFC 279 card up in the air and resulted in a major shake-up. While that left Diaz submitting Tony Ferguson in his final UFC fight instead, Chimaev tore through Kevin Holland in one round.
At the post-fight press conference, Chimaev expressed some relief that he didn’t share the cage with Diaz, fearing what would have happened if he had.
“I don’t understand thinking (he) can win against me,” Chimaev said. “Diaz has to thank God he didn’t fight me.
“If I fought him, I would kill him. I’d be in jail, so maybe I have to be happy.
“Did you see that fight (Diaz vs Ferguson)? Did you see the guys get tired? Did you see how they kicked? How they punched? How they wrestled? How they grappled?
“The guy is old. I’m the young guy. I’m the killer,” Chimaev added.
Chimaev may also be thankful for another reason, as the indiscretion during fight week in September 2022 set the stage for his move up in weight and the upcoming UFC 319 title shot against Du Plessis.
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Dan Hardy called Khamzat Chimaev fight an ‘assassination attempt’ on Nate Diaz
One man who seemingly agreed with Chimaev’s sentiment was ex-UFC title challenger Dan Hardy, who made it clear what he thought of the decision to book ‘Borz’ against Diaz.
Months before UFC 279, Hardy expressed interest in boxing Diaz. With that in mind, he was hoping to see the Stockton star exit the promotion, but he was still shocked by the manner with which the UFC planned to have Diaz bid farewell to the Octagon.
“Imagine Nate Diaz (fighting) Khamzat Chimaev. We all know what that was. We all knew what that was,” Hardy said on the Freedom Pact podcast.
“Fortunately it worked out that fight didn’t happen, and then what did we get from Dana the week after? ‘It’s a good thing that fight didn’t happen. That would’ve been really bad.’ Like yeah, man.
“I don’t have to buy your bulls— anymore, because I know it’s bulls—. You know what you’re doing. It was an assassination attempt. They were trying to bury (Diaz) before he left his UFC contract.”