If you thought UFC 279’s headline fight, a clash between Nate Diaz and Khamzat Chimaev, looked unlikely on paper, you might have been right. At the ceremonial weigh-ins, Chimaev missed the welterweight limit by a whopping 7.5 pounds, forcing the UFC to reschedule the entire main card.
The event will now be headlined by Tony Ferguson vs Nate Diaz at welterweight, with Li Jingliang vs Kevin Rodriguez and Khamzat Chimaev vs Kevin Holland also on the main card.
BREAKING: UFC 279 Headliner Cancelled, Entire Card Shuffled By MASSIVE Weight Miss
This follows a massive backstage brawl at the UFC 279 press conference that saw Khamzat, Diaz, Holland and their respective teams enter the fray moments before taking to the stage.
UFC president Dana White revealed that doctors forced Khamzat to stop his weight cut as the Chechen star suffered cramps during a “bad cut”.
“So, what happened was he was cutting weight. If you saw him yesterday, he was very lean already and he should’ve come in on weight. He started to cut weight and you know, he started locking up and cramping. All things that happen from a bad cut.
Unlike ten years ago, when we were doing this, we call and send a doctor up and he determines if he should keep cutting weight or not. The doctor told him he shouldn’t. So, we jumped on [saving this card] this morning.”
Nate Diaz, who was set to face Khamzat in the final fight of his UFC contract, will now face off against fellow fan favorite Tony Ferguson. With both Diaz and Ferguson riding losing streaks, this fight feels a little more even, and a little more fan-friendly than Diaz vs Khamzat ever did. After weeks of needling from Khamzat Chimaev, who calls himself a “real gangster”, Nate Diaz was all too happy to jump on the mic and blast his formerly scheduled opponent.
“Tony’s been around a long time, we should have fought a long time ago. Khabib [Nurmagomedov]’s b****a** was afraid of him just like this b****a** motherf***** was afraid of me yesterday. We punched his b****a** in the back here and now he doesn’t make weight.
You guys already know what it is. Real Gs come from California, America motherf*****.”
Tony Ferguson echoed the sentiment: “Grab your f****** popcorn and blue Slushees motherf****** because we’re going to have some fun!”
Khamzat Chimaev’s stated dream to “kill everybody” rang a little hollow as he addressed the booing crowd. “They stopped that s***. I don’t know, I wanted more cutting that s***. Hey, this is Chechnya motherf*******, shut up, guys. I f*** your boy up, I f*** him backstage as well.
I don’t care, I want to smash everybody. I come here f*** everybody, you know? I’m going to take over now.”
