The UFC star threw shade at the former lightweight champion by referencing the latter’s own missed weight cuts.
After being criticized by Khabib Nurmagomedov for failing to make weight ahead of UFC 279 last week, Khamzat Chimaev hit back with some shade of his own.
The undefeated UFC fighter, who weighed in 8.5 pounds over the contracted welterweight limit of 170 pounds, responded to a fan who claimed to have seen him “hanging out at a restaurant for hours” the night before UFC weigh-ins took place by referencing Nurmagomedov’s own weight cut issues in the past.
“I ate too much tiramisu, that’s why my fight with Tony Ferguson been cancelled five times ,” Chimaev said in a since-deleted post on Instagram (h/t @Bendaman2001).
Chimaev’s comments came a day after Nurmagomedov stated that the Chechen fighter’s dietary issues were due to a lack of Muslims in his fight camp. “If you are a Muslim, you should have good people around you – Muslims who can say: ‘Hey, don’t do this. I recently watched the weigh-in of Khamzat Chimaev. I followed what was happening with his weight and looked at his team. There are no Muslims around him and this is very bad. Because if you are a Muslim, you need good, strong people around you. [They] will say: “Come back, do this,” Nurmagomedov said at a charity event in London.
It is worth noting that Nurmagomedov has also failed to make weight on multiple occasions during his UFC tenure. He missed weight ahead of his fourth UFC fight against Abel Trujillo at UFC 160 in May 2013, and was hospitalized two hours before his scheduled weigh-in to face Tony Ferguson at UFC 209.
In the fallout of UFC 209, Ferguson alleged that Nurmagomedov was eating tiramisu on UFC Embedded days before the fight. The rumors resulted in widespread memes and relentless attacks from UFC fight fans who were disappointed that the anticipated bout had fallen through. Nurmagomedov later denied ever eating the infamous tiramisu.
“I no understand why people talk about this. I don’t eat this,” Nurmagomedov said on The MMA Hour in 2017. “We’re going to restaurant and we chill together, everything, but [I was the only one] cutting weight. The other guys, no cutting weight, and everybody eat everything. But I don’t eat any of this stuff. I eat only my food. I no understand why people talk about this.
“Somebody ordered cake and somebody eat cake — of course somebody eat cake — but I don’t eat nothing. I don’t eat this cake. I did nothing, but I don’t understand why people talk about this.”