Media Khamzat pretty much confirmed that the UFC made him miss weight at UFC 279

[Paolo Delutis]

https://x.com/DeepWat50503285/status/1714646017407352998?s=20

Khamzat quote with broken english:

"everyone speak about my I didn't make weight ya know, once in my life, and there was some plans to do that, that way it's not my plans, but I can't say everything here and uh, yeah..."

I think this pretty much confirms what most people were/have speculated since that day before UFC 279 which was...pre-sale #'s were abysmal and Uncle Dana knew there needed to be a shake-up to draw more interest. They knew Tony-Jingliang and Khamzat-Diaz wouldn't generate nearly as much money as Tony-Diaz and Khamzat-Holland...they stepped in mid-cut and told Khamzat to stop cutting, they'll pay him a shit ton of money to go along with the narrative that he "missed" weight and boom, all is well.

BULLL SHIT.....

HE HAD 10 WEEKS TO MAKE WEIGHT.

THERE WAS SOME PLANS.. FUCK OFF...

i thought a doctor told him to stop cutting... now UFC had a plan mmmmyapp

 

[jeff7b9]

I appreciate your take, but Sonnen wasn't the first choice. Dana also reached out to Shogun and Machida.


Dana would reach out to Shogun and Machida again, to fight Jones at UFC 152 in Canada, in one month's time.

Both of them turned it down, citing they needed more time to rematch someone like Jon Jones. This put the both of them in the dog house. Dana was frustrated. He would have to call another fighter from MW to fight Jones for the strap at 152, Vitor Belfort.

Chael was never a legitimate option, for Team Quest to make such a play. Dana has used the bait and switch numerous times. It just didn't work here since Dana didn't plan for Jones to say No. The whole event was scrapped, and Dana infamously threw Jones under the bus and tried to pin the cancelation of the entire event on him.

But, you could be right too though. Could be a bit of both. Perhaps Team Quest and Dana had some kind of verbal agreement.


Man, talking about 151 just makes me feel bad for not getting to see Jones VS Hendo

I never said it was the UFC's plan.
If anything they were the target for this con.

That's why I think Hendo waited until so close to the fight. I think they (Team Quest/Chael&Hendo) figured if they waited until UFC was completely up Schitt's Creek then they wouldn't be able to get anyone else even if they wanted to because other actual contenders wouldn't be prepared to make weight (or knew Jon would fuck them up if they had literally no camp.)

Then Chael (who had been training all along since he was in Hendo's camp helping him prepare) was gonna swoop in and save the day.

And it damn near worked.

They just didn't plan for Jon Jones saying no. That caught everyone off guard.

Chael hadn't fought at LHW in years and hadn't WON at LHW in even longer. Of course he wasn't the UFCs first choice.
And he had recently lost 2 title shots at MW so he had no real path to a title shot for the foreseeable future. Unless the whole diabolic scheme worked out.

How they/Chael managed to talk anyone into the TUF thing... perhaps they missed their calling for a life as con artists. On second thought, maybe Chael didn't miss that after all.

Could this whole story be a wild conspiracy theory woven entirely in my head? I suppose it could.
But man those pieces just fit together awfully conveniently.

 

[Neck&Neck]

I wouldn’t of cared, but he had to flip the double birds… and that was just too much for me

 

[Alpha_T83]

Let' see if Khamzat makes 185 this weekend. I'm feeling another Anthony Johnson situation coming on.

 

[Sasha]

Yeah, UFC forced him into a locked room and made him to eat donuts until he missed weight & tanked the PPV main event they were promoting

Shit, that gif sent me back in time. I was like 5-6 when the episode aired, I haven't seen it since then, but I remember it quite clearly. Now I know why my memory is garbage, it’s full of shit like that lol.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

I thought it was to save Nate Diaz’s life

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

I kind of thought this was the case. The UFC definitely pays attention to PPV sales and has people doing analytics to figure out what match ups people want. I had the impression people didn't want to see Khamzat vs Nate cause it was very clearly a lopsided match up and Nate is popular. People don't want to pay money to see someone they like in a match up they have practically no chance of winning.

doesn't make sense to me, why would the UFC sign Khamzat vs Nate in the first place if they didn't think anyone would pay for it? and then it took them all that time to only realize days before the fight that it wasn't going to sell?

If by "tanked" you mean improved the # of PPVs, then yes, they did.

is there proof that PPV buys suddenly spiked when they changed opponents?

 

[El Fernas]

BS, then why he never took a fight at 170 again? He was going to make weight and most likely fight for the belt...BS.

 

[Iconoclast]

Yeah I saw that I was surprised they didn't ask him a follow up question.

 

[Cooliox]

I never said it was the UFC's plan.
If anything they were the target for this con.

That's why I think Hendo waited until so close to the fight. I think they (Team Quest/Chael&Hendo) figured if they waited until UFC was completely up Schitt's Creek then they wouldn't be able to get anyone else even if they wanted to because other actual contenders wouldn't be prepared to make weight (or knew Jon would fuck them up if they had literally no camp.)

Then Chael (who had been training all along since he was in Hendo's camp helping him prepare) was gonna swoop in and save the day.

And it damn near worked.

They just didn't plan for Jon Jones saying no. That caught everyone off guard.

Chael hadn't fought at LHW in years and hadn't WON at LHW in even longer. Of course he wasn't the UFCs first choice.
And he had recently lost 2 title shots at MW so he had no real path to a title shot for the foreseeable future. Unless the whole diabolic scheme worked out.

How they/Chael managed to talk anyone into the TUF thing... perhaps they missed their calling for a life as con artists. On second thought, maybe Chael didn't miss that after all.

Could this whole story be a wild conspiracy theory woven entirely in my head? I suppose it could.
But man those pieces just fit together awfully conveniently.

 

[WallNStallToeStomper]

Khamzat was complimentary of Khabib in this interview. Im glad these two chads can live in peace and harmony

chad "the gigachad" chadington

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

"Khamzat is a superstar! Diaz is a superstar!"

Yet supposedly there was no interest in a fight between two popular fighters and instead Khamzat got a non-main-event squash match and Diaz got a shopworn Ferguson? And that supposedly is what made more financial sense?

You don't think it would be beneficial to have 2 super stars in match ups they can win rather than one matched up with the other in a lopsided fight that everyone pretty much knows the outcome already?

 

[Copper Burner]

That makes zero sense logically. Khamzat was already more well known than Tony Ferguson.

this is the same Tony that needed like 10 wins to even be considered for a title shot during his peak run. Meanwhile popular guys get shots off 1-2 wins or losses.

This was more about Nates last fight in the UFC. Khamzat would've murdered him in front of the whole world. Then everyone would hate on Dana and accuse him of being bitter for making Diaz fight Khamzat in his last contracted fight. It would've left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

 

[Jackonfire]

You don't think it would be beneficial to have 2 super stars in match ups they can win rather than one matched up with the other in a lopsided fight that everyone pretty much knows the outcome already?

So why not book winnable match-ups from the start?

 

[Jackonfire]

Exactly, mid way through his weight cut (believe it was the night before), UFC brass stepped in and said "hey, long story short, the card isn't selling, so we're shaking things up. stop cutting weight, you aren't fighting Diaz anymore, you're gonna fight Holland, and we're gonna pay you a shit ton more money to be the scapegoat, deal?" And Khamzat said, ok I like lots of money, deal.

Except it wasn't just Khamzat they had to pay off. Diaz, and Holland both mentioned the huge bump in pay they received for switching up opponents. Holland even mentioned retiring after getting paid. UFC hates paying fighters. Just ask Jim Miller who stepped in on short notice, made weight only to have his opponent pulled and the fight cancelled and he didn't even get his full show money. Ask Wonderboy who just got shafted his show money after making weight.

Not to mention, the vast majority of people who buy ppv's do so the day of the fight, not mid week.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

So why not book winnable match-ups from the start?

Cause they didn't realize Khamzat vs Diaz wasn't interesting to people and that they knew it was going to be a one sided beating. I think this is a case of the UFC underestimating the casuals knowledge of the fighters. They figured popular fighter vs popular fighter has to sell well but they didn't think about how pretty much everyone knew that fight would be Khamzat running through Nate.

Plus Dana White is petty and Nate was leaving the UFC so they were trying to lower his stock by having Khamzat smash him. Dana and the UFC don't like letting fighters leave the UFC off a win but they will do it if it means more PPV sales.

 

[sjon22]

Yeah, UFC forced him into a locked room and made him to eat donuts until he missed weight & tanked the PPV main event they were promoting

They did the same thing with Khabib and Tiramisu and Johnny Hendricks with cheeseburgers

 

[burningspear]

He was effortlessly cool about the situation and there was zero backlash from the goof?

 

[Jackonfire]

Anyway, remember the following Monday when Khamzat's coach went on the MMA Hour? This is what he said about the whole situation:

“We started this camp heavy,” Michael continued. “That’s what the problem was as well. We got an offer to fight Nate Diaz, and it was earlier than this in August. It was too soon because he was heavy. Then they moved it 10 days up, and I believe we just started too heavy this camp. We should have had a little more discipline and held our weight to a reasonable level, to a reasonable weight close to the one that he’s training at and going into camp. That’s basically about it.

“We can find a lot of reasons and excuses and all this. At the end of the day — I’m not slagging off Khamzat, he’s a magnificent fighter and I love him to death — but what I’m saying is that it was absolutely unprofessional from our side not to make weight. Anyone who doesn’t make weight is unprofessional, absolutely. I want to [apologize] to Nate’s camp for that. We should have both made weight, and there are no excuses.”

and then he admitted it wasn't the doctors who stepped in to stop the cut:

“He was getting muscle spasms, shaking,” Michael said. “Vomiting. When he stood up he was passing out. I was worried about him. Ever since he got coronavirus and all these health issues, he’s had a little bit of a hard time making the weight,” Michael later added.

Michael clarified it was his decision to stop the weight cut after consulting with doctors. He also made it clear that Chimaev’s miss had nothing to do with any sort of grand plan on the part of his team or the UFC.

“I told [Chimaev], ‘F*** this, your health is number one,’” Michael said. “That’s why we called the physician. We were thinking, ‘Forget about the fight. Is he alright?’ Cutting weight is very dangerous for the body if you push too hard, and I just wanted him to be OK."

https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/9/...-issues-shoots-down-ufc-279-conspiracy-theory

 

[GrantB13]

You don't think it would be beneficial to have 2 super stars in match ups they can win rather than one matched up with the other in a lopsided fight that everyone pretty much knows the outcome already?

Probably not. Because the UFC loves top heavy cards.