Dana White unsure what plans Khamzat Chimaev has after call out for Colby Covington fight despite middleweight move looming
Khamzat Chimaev might move to middleweight, but a welterweight showdown could be in the sights currently.
Though Chimaev scored another dominant victory at the September pay-per-view, his weight miss forced him out of the main event bout against Nate Diaz and caused a reshuffling of the top three fights on the card.
Chimaev weighed in at 178.5 pounds for a scheduled welterweight bout, 7.5 pounds over the limit, and was eventually moved into a co-main event catchweight bout opposite Kevin Holland.
Following the season finale of the Contender Series on Tuesday, UFC President Dana White was asked what the promotion’s plans are for Chimaev and he replied that the two-division threat’s future is still in flux.
“There’s obviously 170 and 185 pounds, there was a big beef today at matchmaking whether he can make 170 pounds, whether we should even let him make 170 pounds again,” White said. “Those are all the things that we’re kicking around right now.”
“I’m in the middle,” White said. “What does he want to do? Where does he want to be and what does he want to do? Does he want to make 170 and go for the title at 170 or does he want to go to 185 and go for the title there? That was the big debate we had today in the matchmaking meeting,” White later added. “One guy said one thing, one guy said another thing. Then I said, what does he really want? Somebody get in there and figure out what he really wants to do and let’s figure out and let’s make a fight.”
For Chimaev’s part, it sounds like he intends to stay at 170 pounds. On Thursday, he tweeted that he wants to fight two-time UFC title challenger Colby Covington next.
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