Andrew Ravens
Former UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw was inside Khamzat Chimaev‘s camp for UFC 328 and says what happened during fight week was far more alarming than what played out publicly.
Speaking with MMA Fighting, Dillashaw said Chimaev looked like an unbeatable force throughout training camp before a mismanaged weight cut derailed his performance against Sean Strickland. Strickland won via split decision to reclaim the UFC middleweight title.
“Khamzat looked like an animal for his camp, like he was unbeatable,” Dillashaw said. “But then the way that they made him cut weight was horrible.”
Dillashaw, a former two-time UFC bantamweight champion and current owner of Wild Society Nutrition, said he introduced Chimaev to weight cut specialist Sam Calavitta during the process.
According to Dillashaw, the core issue was water management. He said Chimaev drank only a fraction of the water he was supposed to consume during fight week and then attempted to shed far more weight in a single session than his body could safely handle. At that point, Dillashaw said, the body shuts down.
Khamzat Chimaev was literally killing himself during UFC 328’s weight cut?
“Your body will stop sweating,” Dillashaw said. “You might only have three pounds to go, but that’s gonna take you seven, eight hours because you’re dying.”
Dillashaw said Chimaev was vomiting green bile at points during the cut and described the situation as genuinely life-threatening. He said Chimaev was at one point prepared to pay Strickland $1 million to accept a catchweight rather than continue cutting.
He also pointed to Chimaev’s thyroid condition as a compounding factor, saying Chimaev operates with half a functioning thyroid, which significantly affects his metabolism and makes a properly managed cut even more critical.
“If you’re not treating it the right way, you could kill him,” Dillashaw said. “I really believe he was on the verge of death making that weight cut.”
Khamzat Chimaev record: 15-1
Following the official weigh-in, Strickland publicly stated that he believed Chimaev had been given a pass by the New Jersey commissioner and had never actually made weight. Those accusations have not been confirmed or proven.
Despite all of it, Dillashaw said Chimaev’s performance under those conditions was remarkable. He said Chimaev outworked Strickland in the later rounds and argued the fight could have gone either way, framing the result as a product of Chimaev’s severe underperformance rather than Strickland’s dominance.
“To know what he actually went through — he should not have made it to the fight,” Dillashaw said. “And to see how he performed still, that makes me realize how tough Khamzat is.”
