{"id":665206,"date":"2026-05-12T20:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665206\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:58:19","slug":"khamzat-chimaevs-body-shut-down-in-brutal-50-pound-weight-cut-for-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665206\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamzat Chimaev&#8217;s &#8216;body shut down&#8217; in brutal 50-pound weight cut for UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s weight cut for UFC 328 was far worse than it looked at Friday\u2019s official weigh-in.<\/p>\n<p>Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s journey to the Octagon before UFC 328 was even worse than what would end up being a loss to Sean Strickland in his first middleweight title defense.<\/p>\n<p>Chimaev lost to Strickland by split decision <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ufc-328\/ufc-328-chimaev-vs-strickland-live-results-and-highlights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in the UFC 328 main event<\/a> last Saturday in Newark. It was another stunning upset win for Strickland, who handed Chimaev his first loss in Mixed Martial Arts.<\/p>\n<p>At Friday\u2019s official weigh-in, there was concern that the fight wouldn\u2019t proceed after Chimaev was the last fighter to make it to the scale. While Chimaev eventually weighed in successfully <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ufc\/ufc-328-weigh-in-results-khamzat-chimaev-and-sean-strickland-make-championship-weight-jeremy-stephens-misses-big\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at the middleweight limit (185 pounds)<\/a>, he looked skeletal and drained on the scale, prompting concern for his health.<\/p>\n<p>Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s brother details harrowing journey to UFC 328 weigh-in<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=M8dIAqTNZlw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sports.RU<\/a>, Chimaev\u2019s brother, Artur, detailed a scary scene as the now-former UFC middleweight champ cut to the 185-pound limit.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UFC 328 Highlights: Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland | ESPN MMA\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ISSrkth_cSE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a problem with the weight cut. The question became whether to cancel the fight or take the risk. When there was [2.7 pounds] left, his body shut down,\u201d Chimaev\u2019s brother said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOxygen deprivation. His body malfunctioned. We had to stop for an hour because his health wouldn\u2019t allow him to continue\u2026 Khamzat himself said he didn\u2019t know how he\u2019d fight in that condition. There was an agreement with the UFC that he would fight Jiri Prochazka at 205. The contract was already prepared, but then they asked him to fight Sean instead\u2026 so he accepted and decided to cut from [231 pounds] down to [185 pounds]. By fight time, he had only regained around [11-13 pounds]\u2026 Two weeks before the fight he weighed [214 pounds].\u201d (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/487846\/khamzat-chimaevs-brother-claims-fighters-body-shut-down-during-ufc-328-weight-cut-wants-rematch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MMA Fighting<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Artur then raised eyebrows with his next claim that Chimaev and his team are focused on running it back with Strickland, instead of a light heavyweight move, after UFC 328.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve requested a rematch with Strickland,\u201d Chimaev\u2019s brother said. \u201cThere\u2019s an event in Abu Dhabi in October and we want to do it there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKhamzat isn\u2019t the type of person to move to another weight class and leave unanswered questions behind. We want the second fight. Right now we have no other goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Artur\u2019s claim contradicts UFC CEO Dana White\u2019s post-fight claim at the UFC 328 press conference, in which the UFC head man claimed Chimaev immediately told him he wants to move up to light heavyweight full-time.<\/p>\n<p>Who should Khamzat Chimaev fight next in his potential light heavyweight debut? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s weight cut for UFC 328 was far worse than it looked at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,5899,638,82,640,208767],"class_list":["post-665206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-328"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}