Khamzat Chimaev‘s split decision loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 328 now has additional context, and it starts well before the opening bell. The former UFC champion suffered his first professional MMA loss to Strickland in a bloody 25-minute battle. But according to his friend and training partner Arman Tsarukyan, the weight cut to 185 pounds was so brutal that Chimaev questioned whether he could even compete on fight night.
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“From his training camp, he cut 40 pounds? No, no, he had to cut 13 pounds,” Tsarukyan revealed in a JAXXON interview. “First, 9 pounds was easy, and then he felt bad during the night. Then he woke up and said to us, like, ‘I feel so weak.’ Like, no energy, and I don’t know how I’m gonna cut this last 4 pounds.’
“But we just pushed him, you know. We pushed him so hard. He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to finish the cut. But the team, like me and the coaches, we tried to push him to make the weight.”
That strain was visible at the weigh-ins. Former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier, who was present at the morning weigh-ins, described Khamzat Chimaev’s appearance as “miserable” and noted that he looked “skinny.” In the end, the Chechen managed to make the required weight, barely.
Inside the cage, the effects of the cut appeared to catch up with Chimaev over the course of the fight. He dominated Sean Strickland in the opening round. However, it all went downhill from there.
In the later rounds, Chimaev eventually resorted to trading strikes with the 35-year-old, abandoning much of his wrestling-heavy approach to conserve energy and power. That shift allowed the Strickland to land some good shots and volume jabs, ultimately ending the bout in a razor-thin split decision victory for ‘Tarzan’. Arman Tsarukyan also pointed to the difficult weight cut as the reason behind Chimaev’s striking-heavy approach.
Arman Tsarukyan reveals how brutal Khamzat Chimaev’s weight cut was during the fight week “From day 1 of his training camp, he cut 40lbs. He had to cut 13lbs on the last day. The first 9lbs was easy and he felt bad during the night, and then he woke up and said, ‘I feel so weak Show more
“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.
“Because here in the training he was doing sparring five rounds, non-stop, beat everybody, wrestle 25 minutes.”
Tsarukyan added that Chimaev felt fine the morning after, suggesting the damage was acute rather than lasting. Since the loss, the Chechen fighter’s brother has also opened up how Khamzat nearly risked his health while preparing for the fight.
Khamzat Chimaev nearly faced health risk during UFC 328’s brutal weight-cut
The former middleweight champion’s brother, Artur Chimaev, was part of his camp for the Sean Strickland fight and later revealed some alarming details about the weight cut. According to Artur, Khamzat’s body began shutting down while cutting the final 2.7 pounds due to oxygen deprivation. As a result, the team seriously considered whether to cancel the fight altogether or take the risk and move forward.
“There was a problem with the weight cut,” Artur said via Championship Rounds. “The question became whether to cancel the fight or take the risk. When there was [2.7 pounds] left, his body shut down… Oxygen deprivation. His body malfunctioned. We had to stop for an hour because his health wouldn’t allow him to continue… Khamzat himself said he didn’t know how he’d fight in that condition.”
The episode draws a direct parallel to his UFC 279 camp, when Khamzat Chimaev also ran into significant weight issues at welterweight. The middleweight cut has now proven similarly problematic, raising genuine questions about how much longer he can sustain the physical cost of competing at 185 pounds. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison faced a comparable situation not too long ago, being hospitalized after an extreme weight cut became medically dangerous.
With a Strickland rematch being pushed by Khamzat Chimaev’s camp but not yet confirmed, and the promotion floating a move to light heavyweight as an alternative, how his body responds to the weight class long-term may ultimately decide which direction his career goes next.
