UFC commentator Joe Rogan suggested a reason why Khamzat Chimaev got tired in his fight against Sean Strickland at UFC 328.
Chimaev lost his UFC middleweight title when he lost a split decision to Strickland in the UFC 328 headliner. It was a closely fought fight between two bitter rivals that went the full five rounds, but in the end, two of the three judges sided with Strickland, and he became a two-time UFC middleweight champion with the victory.
One of the reasons Strickland won the fight was due to his superior gas tank. In the first round, Chimaev took Strickland down and controlled him on the ground as he does to all of his opponents. But in the second round, we saw something we have never seen from Chimaev, which was him getting tired and then falling on his back, with Strickland getting in top position and inflicting heavy damage. Chimaev was able to survive and did well in the middle rounds, but he just never recovered from what happened in the second round and ended up losing the decision.
Joe Rogan Has an Idea Why Khamzat Chimaev Got Tired
Speaking on the UFC on Paramount+ post-fight show, Rogan suggested a reason why Chimaev got tired in the fight.
During the UFC 328 official weigh-ins, Chimaev was the last man to step on the scale, and it looked like he had a really difficult time making 185 lbs. In Rogan’s opinion, he believes that Chimaev thought he was going to fight Jiri Prochazka at 205 lbs before he was booked against Strickland, and he thinks the Russian may have been bulking up for his light heavyweight debut. This made the weight cut to middleweight tougher, leading to him depleting his body during the weight cut and, in turn, getting exhausted during the fight.
“I don’t know, it was a good question because it could have been a factor, the fact that he did try to bulk up. He was thinking that he was going to fight Jiri Prochazka for 205,” Rogan said.
Firas Zahabi Invites Khamzat Chimaev to Train at Tristar Gym
Considering Chimaev looked invincible before the Strickland fight, it was downright shocking to see him get tired during the fight.
After the bout, Firas Zahabi of Tristar Gym invited Chimaev to come train with him and UFC legend Georges St-Pierre in Montreal. Zahabi believes he can help fix Chimaev’s gas tank problem, and essentially begged him to come to Canada and train with him to improve his conditioning. Considering St-Pierre had some of the best cardio of all-time in MMA, it makes a lot of sense for Chimaev to go train with him and Zahabi and try to improve his conditioning.
It will certainly be very interesting to see what Chimaev does next, but regardless of what weight class he fights at next time out, he has to show up with a superior gas tank, or else he is going to lose again, as the best fighters in the world tend to use their cardio as a weapon.
Joe Rogan Suggests Reason Khamzat Chimaev Tired at UFC 328