Khamzat Chimaev missed weight badly on Friday and instead of fighting Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 279, he wound up facing Kevin Holland in the co-main event. Missing weight by 7.5 pounds, as Chimaev did, would usually be grounds for either dropping a fighter in the rankings or not including him at all.
. Missing weight by 7.5 pounds, as Chimaev did, would usually be grounds for either dropping a fighter in the rankings or not including him at all.
It was the fourth time in his six UFC fights he held his opponent without a strike landed. In his UFC debut, John Phillips landed one strike on him. In the other, Gilbert Burns landed 119, but Chimaev won the decision. After much debate, I settled on eight. I originally began thinking of five, where new welterweight champion Leon Edwards had been sitting. But Edwards has a six-year, not a six-fight, winning streak running and he capped it by knocking out then-No. 1 Kamaru Usman.