Before making the full-time move to middleweight, Chimaev fought at 170 and 185 lbs in the early stages of his UFC tenure. Chimaev\u2019s willingness to fight at multiple weight classes led to a high activity rate as he became a star in the promotion.<\/p>\n
But after Chimaev\u2019s disastrous weight miss ahead of his fight with Nate Diaz<\/a> at UFC 279, he was forced to move to middleweight for the foreseeable future. Three years later, Chimaev is revisiting the idea of competing at a lower weight class.<\/p>\n Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub<\/a> raised eyebrows when he claimed that Chimaev could fight as high as heavyweight<\/a> before he hangs up the gloves. As Chimaev prepares for UFC 319, he\u2019s already thinking about what could be next following a title win.<\/p>\n In a recent interview with ESPN\u2018s Brett Okamoto<\/a>, Chimaev plotted a pursuit to become a three-division champion after UFC 319.<\/p>\n \u201cMy new coach said, \u2018Give me a couple of months and we\u2019re going to make [welterweight],\u201d Chimaev said.<\/p>\n \u201c[Jack Della Maddalena] would be a good fight for me. Go down, fight him, take the belt there, and then there\u2019s Ankalaev, and Alex Pereira, I can fight for that [light heavyweight] belt.\u201d<\/p>\n Chimaev was then pressed about why he\u2019d entertain returning to welterweight after his UFC 279 weight cut debacle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard but if you can do it, why not?\u201d Chimaev answered.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is hard. To get the big things are not easy, you have to work for that.\u201d<\/p>\n In fairness, Chimaev has only missed weight once in his eight-fight UFC stint, although his previous health issues have left some uneasy<\/a> about his fighting future.<\/p>\n UFC fans scoff at Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s claims about a welterweight return after UFC 319<\/p>\n After Chimaev\u2019s welterweight tease went viral, fans weren\u2019t having it on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t trust Khamzat cutting weight,\u201d one fan wrote on X.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not active enough to be champ of 3 divisions, let alone 1,\u201d another said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the funniest s\u2014 I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWrong direction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTopuria has a better chance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe won\u2019t even beat DDP.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDana could introduce unlimited weight classes and this m\u2014\u2014\u2013 would still miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe couldn\u2019t make welterweight when he was in welterweight lmao.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLast time he tried to make welterweight, he got sick. Forget it. Too big for welterweight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got a better chance at heavyweight than welterweight at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Chimaev was briefly linked to a potential fight with Alex Pereira<\/a> before fight talks stalled ahead of UFC 283 in Brazil. Pereira went on to rematch Israel Adesanya<\/a> at UFC 287 in his lone middleweight title defense, losing by knockout.<\/p>\n Just months ago, Chimaev trolled Pereira on social media<\/a> in reminding the former UFC light heavyweight champ about his devastating knockout defeat. Pereira will rematch Magomed Ankalaev<\/a> at UFC 320 in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC fans aren\u2019t buying what Khamzat Chimaev is selling ahead of his showdown with Dricus du Plessis. UFC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[47631,47632,6995,99,6493,47633],"class_list":{"0":"post-64516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-dricus-du-plessis","9":"tag-khamzat-chimaev","10":"tag-mma","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-ufc","13":"tag-ufc-319"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Khamzat](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2181229046-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLCKhamzat Chimaev plots moves to light heavyweight, welterweight after UFC 319<\/p>\n