When it was revealed that Nate Diaz would fight Khamzat Chimaev for the last fight in his contract, many fans were naturally excited. Khamzat just had a brawl against fellow Welterweight Gilbert ‘Durinho’ Burns and the old-battered Diaz was not even considered a match unless some accident was to happen.
Chimaev issued a lot of warnings towards the veteran while Diaz seemed kinda indifferent and careless about all the caution getting thrown at him. Earlier the Chechen was accused of abusing the ‘Daniel Cormier towel trick‘ to make his weight for the fight against Li Jingliang but many weren’t expecting what was to come.
The fight day approaches and fighters make their way to the weight. Nate also goes to the scale and hits the mark potentially for the last time. Fans couldn’t remain emotional for long as Khamzat made his way to the weight and came in significantly heavier and worse, he had a very smug reaction to the situation.
The fight cards were then switched around and Tony Ferguson was announced as the new opponent for Diaz and Kevin Holland was compensated well to move up and fight Chimaev on catchweight. Diaz won his fight against ‘El Cucuy’ to leave the organization as a hero while ‘Borz’ dominated Kevin but still left some fans disappointed.
How much money was offered for the Nate Diaz-Khamzat Chimaev fight?
Chimaev claimed in an interview, “Ramzan Akhmatovich called me and said he would give Nate $2 million to agree to the fight. I told Diaz, but he still refused. He didn’t want to fight me and just found another option.”
Now Nate’s team issued a response, “It is fun fiction for Khamzat. Just lacks a shred of truth, including what he was supposed to make. At what point in Khamzat’s fairy tale did he ask Nate? When he tapped out of his weight cut at 2 AM? When he was being held in isolation at the UFC PI so the story wouldn’t get out? The only millions that were negotiated on Friday were the millions more we got for fighting Tony after Khamzat was not professional enough to show up for the fight we asked for.”
Khamzat is currently calling out Robert Whittaker though no official announcement has been made.
