Hamzat Chimaev, who wants a rematch with Sean Strickland [Getty Images]
Hamzat Chimaev, who wants a rematch with Sean Strickland [Getty Images]

Hamzat Chimaev is desperate for a rematch with Sean Strickland after dropping the middleweight title by a narrow decision at UFC 328 — a performance he has blamed on a troubled weight cut.

His coach, Murad Bichuev, has now shed light on why the cut was so difficult: Chimaev had been bulking up in preparation for a move to light heavyweight before the UFC suddenly redirected him back to middleweight.

Bichuev told Red Corner MMA in a recent interview that the team had originally been targeting a light heavyweight (93 kg) bout against Jiri Prochazka. "We were focused on building Hamzat's muscle mass and increasing his body weight," he said.

Then came an unexpected directive. "Suddenly we received word from the UFC that he had to fight Strickland at middleweight (84 kg)," Bichuev said. "There wasn't enough time, and we ran into far more problems than we anticipated" in reversing course from a bulk to a cut.

Crash weight cuts — even when a fighter makes the scale — typically compromise performance, as the body cannot fully recover or rehydrate the way it would after a routine cut.

The light heavyweight picture had shifted at UFC 327 in April, when Prochazka and Carlos Ulberg fought for the vacant title and Ulberg won. A Chimaev-Prochazka matchup had appeared to be in the works, but Chimaev ultimately defended his middleweight title a month later at UFC 328 in May.

The Prochazka-Ulberg bout was officially announced Feb. 28, meaning Chimaev's camp had more than two months to prepare for a middleweight title defense — enough time for a standard weight cut, but widely considered too short a window to reverse a deliberate bulk and then shed the added mass.


yjc@heraldcorp.com