Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was not thrilled by what he saw from Khamzat Chimaev.
Georges St-Pierre says Khamzat Chimaev needs to earn back his respect after missing weight against Nate Diaz at UFC 279 and that the undefeated Chechnan deserves another shot at welterweight despite mass calls for him to move up to middleweight.
Khamzat was pulled from his welterweight headliner with Diaz after weighing in seven and a half pounds over the 170-pound welterweight limit and was demoted to the co-main event where he submitted Kevin Holland with a D’Arce choke in the first round.
Khamzat flipped off the crowd after being booed for missing weight, but St-Pierre thinks the No. 3-ranked welterweight needs to act more professional if he wants to earn a title shot against the winner of Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman III.
“He needs to make weight,” St-Pierre, the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion, told The Schmo in a recent interview (h/t Drake Riggs of MMA Fighting). “When you miss weight it’s a big disrespect not only to your opponent but to the sport. But we don’t know what happened. Maybe there’s a reason, maybe there’s a medical reason or something, so when you don’t know, you don’t know. But for sure, in the future, if he misses weight another time, maybe that will prevent him from having a title shot.”
“Maybe give him the chance to go back at 170 if he wants to, but he can’t miss weight. Missing weight, it’s hard to forgive. As a fan, I would like to see Kamaru Usman get revenge [for the next title fight] because if anyone deserves it, it’s him. Maybe perhaps Chimaev has a shot against the winner of this fight [with Leon Edwards].”
Khamzat is undefeated at 12-0 (6-0 UFC), with standout victories over Kevin Holland and Gilbert Burns. He may be the most talented fighter we have seen in the UFC since Jon Jones, who is widely considered the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time.