Las Vegas, NV – After a chaotic week that involved brawls, weight misses and a shuffling of the top of the main card UFC welterweight Khamzat Chimaev finally got to fight. After a very dominant and decisive win over Kevin Holland at UFC 279 on Saturday night the UFC star is ready for what is next.
Chimaev (12-0) blitzed Holland as soon as the ref said “fight”, and although Holland did his best to scramble out of his grip, Chimaev was able to lock in a D’Arce choke and finish the night early.
“The guy actually nice guy. I like him. We’re coming for the war to kill each other. Now this war over, if he wants, he can come to my gym and be one of us. He’s a nice guy, he’s good guy, tough guy. He has a lot of things to learn. He’s one of the warriors,” Chimaev told Cageside Press among other media at his post-fight presser on Saturday.
Before missing weight and losing the matchup against headliner Nate Diaz the crowd mostly cheered for the All Stars MMA product where ever he was seen. Following weigh-ins and the shuffling of the card Chimaev was largely booed by MMA fans.
The turn in crowd “opinion” did not seem to bother Chimaev at all.
“You care about that sh*t? I don’t care. I care about my family, I care about my career, I care about my money. One day they’re with me, one that they’re not with me, I am real guy. I like the people who is real you know? Not the fake people like going one way or going the other way,” Chimaev said.
Chimaev continued on saying that doctors told him he needed to stop cutting weight and so he did. He was more worried about not being able to fight at all after traveling such a long way.
“I was thinking like without fight I have to go fly back. I was thinking, what’s going to happen now, so I was thinking I want to fight. I did a lot of work for that. I want to fight Diaz,” he said.
He even went as far as to say he would have offered Diaz his entire purse as long as the fight went on.
“I don’t care about the money. It’s almost like, I don’t know how much money. Lot of money. I said give all my money to that guy (Diaz). Let him just fight with me if he’s talking about like ‘I’m the gangster’ all that sh*t.,” Chimaev said.
He went on to talk about Diaz’s fight.
“You see Diaz fight? So terrible that guy. I don’t understand thinking about they can win against me. That guy, Kevin Holland, tough guy, strong guy. He’s much better than Diaz. If Diaz (and) him have (fight) Holland will kill him. I finish that guy so easy. First round,” he said.
“Diaz has to thanks God he didn’t fight me.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Khamzat Chimaev above.
