T.J. Dillashaw was around Khamzat Chimaev for a good chunk of Chimaev’s UFC 328 fight camp, and the last thing Dillashaw expected when Chimaev fought Sean Strickland was for him to struggle in the cage—and with his weight cut.
Strickland ended up winning the fight via split decision to regain the UFC middleweight title, but a lot of the storylines heading into the final 24-hour stretch had to do with how the previously-unbeaten Chimaev looked on the scale at the official weigh-ins.
Dillashaw, who now owns Wild Society Nutrition, is well-versed on how weight cuts work being a former two-time bantamweight champion. He knew immediately during fight week things were off.
“Khamzat looked like an animal for his camp, like he was unbeatable,” Dillashaw told MMA Fighting. “There was no way he was going to get beat, but then you get someone that you’re paying—there’s a lot of frauds in this world—and the way that they made him cut weight was horrible. What he needed to do, I introduced him to Calavitta and Sam Calavitta is the best in the business. You can say whatever you want about it, what he does that people don’t do, he’s so smart and the amount of work that he puts into a camp is insane.
“Like everything, the way you’re recovering, the supplements you’re taking, the minerals you’re missing in your body from blood work, hair samples, what your hormone levels are doing, like everything. [If] you want to reach that peak performance. He’s the guy to go with. And then, unfortunately, they had trusted someone else to do some of his nutrition and weight cut towards the end and it just ruined it all.”
Following the official weigh-in, and even after his victory, Strickland is convinced Chimaev didn’t even make the weight, but rather was done a favor by the New Jersey commissioner. None of these accusations have been confirmed or proven in any way.
Dillashaw was asked for his opinion on what the biggest culprit was in regards to why Chimaev struggled so much.
“Well, the water,” Dillasahw said. “I mean, if I could put it to one thing… like your body will shut down. Like you can’t go and lose 10 pounds all at once and not drink enough water to tell your brain and your body to like, ‘Hey, let’s keep losing weight. Let’s keep pushing water.’ If you lose too much of it too fast in one sitting, your body will stop sweating. Yeah, you might only have three pounds to go, but guess what? That’s gonna take you seven, eight hours because you’re dying. You’re straight up dying. Your body’s telling you you’re dying. …
“I know exactly how many ounces I’m drinking every day during fight week. I know exactly when I’m going to bed every single day. [Calavitta] knows what I’m going wake up at. He knows how much I’m going float at night and they didn’t do it. He would tell them, like, ‘Hey, there’s so much water he should probably drink.’ They didn’t listen, right? And so he drank a quarter of the water he was supposed to drink and then lost four times the amount he was supposed to lose in one sitting and his body just gave out. And he did not want to make the weight.
“He wanted to give Strickland $1 million and say, ‘Hey, take it. I can’t make it, I’m going to die.’ And you forget this guy’s got half a thyroid, right? His metabolism is half of a normal man. And so if you’re not treating it the right way, you could kill him. And I really believe he was on the verge of death making that weight cut.”
The fight had a lot of heat and personal animosity heading in, and that led to the UFC providing extra security around the headliners and their teams in case they happened to run into each other outside of scheduled events.
The two fighters touched gloves ahead of the fight, and squashed their beef when it was over. But the fight itself was incredibly close. Strickland ended up winning two of the judges on his side to become a two-time 185-pound titleholder.
While Dillashaw agrees with most that it wasn’t a robbery either way, he believes Chimaev did enough to win—but it’s not just about wins and losses. In Dillashaw’s eyes, Chimaev was as compromised as can be. In fact, he alleges that things were so scary before the fight that he’s quite stunned Chimaev was even able to stay competitive.
“I thought he won at least three rounds with the fourth round even being close,” Dillashaw said. “It was not a robbery. … I’ve said that multiple times. It was a close fight due to Khamzat’s underperformance – massive underperformance. And that’s why Sean don’t want to fight him again. Sean knows, like, ‘Oh, I escaped this one. OK, cool.’ Because he felt the first round and it would have been continuously that. But to know what he actually went through, like I just had a hour-long conversation the other night with Calavitta, because like from the outside looking in, without even me talking to Sam, I didn’t even want to reach out to him yet because he was getting so much flack for all this bullshit. But I knew looking from the outside in that he wasn’t eating the [right] foods. They were posting stuff and his nutritionist was posting stuff. I was like, ‘Oh, Sam wouldn’t have him eating that.’
“And then I saw him sitting in the bathtub to cut weight. It was like, Sam wouldn’t have him sitting in the bathtub to cut weight. … And then to hear the story of what actually was happening to him and him puking up green bile and just all the like crazy shit. He should not have made it to the fight. And to see how he performed still, Round 5, Round 4, he still had the better fight in cardio than in Strickland, and Strickland’s supposed to be a cardio guy. Khamzat’s the one going forward landing the bigger shots, right? So Sean won a fight going backwards, throwing a jab? I don’t see it that way. But it makes me realize how tough Khamzat is to do as well as he did on almost dying before getting on that scale. Like I’m saying, almost dying, like scary stories.”
As of now, Chimaev is pushing hard for a rematch, although UFC CEO Dana White revealed in the UFC 328 post-fight press conference that “Borz” told him he wanted to bump up to the light heavyweight division. Everything we’ve seen from Chimaev after the fact trends in the direction of getting a second crack at Strickland, but nothing has been made official.
Whether Chimaev gets another crack at Strickland is one thing, but Dillashaw wants to make sure the narrative about Chimaev’s week and performance shifts in a different way.
“People need to understand: What he pushed through to fight is impressive,” Dillashaw said. “And to do it with, again, the guy’s got half a thyroid. Really. Do your research and understand what that does to your metabolism, and that’s why weight cuts are hard for him. He just needs to do it the right way. And I think he needs to get his ‘85 pound title back before going back up, or even deciding to go 205. Because dude, he was only 16 pounds over showing up to fight week.
“That is easy. I show up 15 pounds over before, and I’m a smaller guy. I show up 15 pounds above 135 on fight week when they do your weight check. But it’s about the water displacement. And I know when I’m 15 pounds over on Sunday going into that week, I’m 15 pounds over and I’m hydrated, drinking the water I’m supposed to drink, I made weight. It’s easy after that. Now it’s just water displacement, and unfortunately they didn’t do that. Again, you’ve got to be really careful with these fighters out there. You got to do some research and really understand how guys are doing stuff. Because we’re still in a sport that’s pretty early and there’s a lot of frauds out there.”
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