{"id":329983,"date":"2026-05-06T06:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=329983"},"modified":"2026-05-06T06:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:38:14","slug":"khamzat-chimaev-hopes-biggest-profession-payday-at-ufc-328-is-his-last-fight-at-middleweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/khamzat-chimaev-hopes-biggest-profession-payday-at-ufc-328-is-his-last-fight-at-middleweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamzat Chimaev hopes biggest profession payday at UFC 328 is his last fight at middleweight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"post-307645\">\n<div class=\"article-follow\">\n<div class=\"article-sharing google-follow\"> <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMWs2azRtMzFf%20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">  <span>Follow us on Google Discover<\/span> <\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Khamzat Chimaev recently addressed his future plans ahead of his first middleweight title defense.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chimaev\u2019s coach said that he asked his fighter to ignore moving up a weight class in the intervening time to be able to give attention to the duty at hand.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-grvmedia-grv-video GRVMultiVideo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018Borz\u2019 is about to headline his second consecutive numbered card this weekend when he puts his title and undefeated record on the road against Sean Strickland.<\/p>\n<p>Even with a highly-anticipated grudge match right across the corner, others have already began making pitches for Chimaev fighting for a belt at light heavyweight.<\/p>\n<section class=\"grv-talking-point\" data-trigger=\"vue-sidebar\" data-story-id=\"ff2270d0-ba05-4c29-8fb5-48000914af4d\" data-story-name=\"UFC 328\" data-comment-id=\"f584535f-5bd4-4243-8d4e-10350530e85a\" data-story-slug=\"ufc-328\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__inner\">\n<header class=\"grv-talking-point__header\">  <\/header>\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__content\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__cta\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__title-wrap\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__title-content\">\n<h3 class=\"grv-talking-point__title\">If Khamzat Chimaev wins at UFC 328, what would you wish to see him do next?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">&#8216;Borz&#8217; has consistently spoken about wanting to maneuver as much as 205 kilos<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__embed\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 991px) 100vw, 800px\" src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Should Khamzat Chimaev move to light heavyweight?\" class=\"wp-image-306749\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5-912x1140.jpg 912w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5-600x750.jpg 600w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/04\/BE-5.jpg 1080w\"><\/div><figcaption title=\"Should Khamzat Chimaev move to light heavyweight?. Credit: Cooper Neill\/Zuffa LLC\">Should Khamzat Chimaev move to light heavyweight?. Credit: Cooper Neill\/Zuffa LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Khamzat Chimaev says he\u2019d wish to move as much as light heavyweight after UFC 328 due to pizza<\/h2>\n<p>While Khamzat Chimaev recently expressed interest in boxing Conor McGregor, he\u2019s spoken about wanting to maneuver as much as light heavyweight for a while.<\/p>\n<p>The division\u2019s lack of an lively champion because of Carlos Ulberg\u2019s injury status only makes this move much more prone to occur within the near future.<\/p>\n<p>When chatting with the media during UFC 328 fight week, Chimaev was asked whether he thinks May 9 shall be the last time we see him compete at 185 kilos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope so, I wish to eat pizza, man. We are going to see,\u201d he responded, as seen in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J8QECxj2wc4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Fighting\u2019s<\/a> upload of the scrum.<\/p>\n<section class=\"grv-talking-point\" data-trigger=\"vue-sidebar\" data-story-id=\"ff2270d0-ba05-4c29-8fb5-48000914af4d\" data-story-name=\"UFC 328\" data-comment-id=\"d90f5e4e-fe6d-4dc0-a54e-257449fc4e34\" data-story-slug=\"ufc-328\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__inner\">\n<header class=\"grv-talking-point__header\">  <\/header>\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__content\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__cta\">\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__title-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"grv-talking-point__title\">Besides the primary event, which UFC 328 fight are you most looking forward to? \ud83e\udd14<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"grv-talking-point__embed\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 991px) 100vw, 800px\" src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-819x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"UFC 328 full line up\" class=\"wp-image-307469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-819x1024.jpeg 819w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-240x300.jpeg 240w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-768x960.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-1229x1536.jpeg 1229w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-912x1140.jpeg 912w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-scaled.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2026\/05\/HHatk6sasAAYUtz-600x750.jpeg 600w\"><\/div><figcaption title=\"UFC 328 full line up. Credit: The Cage Report\">UFC 328 full line up. Credit: The Cage Report<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>One other factor that means Chimaev could move up a division after his first title defense is the matchups which can be on the market for him at middleweight.<\/p>\n<p>While Nassourdine Imavov has earned a title shot, the UFC went with Sean Strickland because the undefeated champion\u2019s first challenger since it\u2019s a much larger fight on paper.<\/p>\n<p>Chimaev, who said he loves Strickland for drawing a lot attention to the fight along with his controversial comments, revealed throughout the scrum that this has led to May 9 being his biggest payday to this point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I never made that much money before. That\u2019s good,\u201d he smiled when asked about Strickland\u2019s trash talking.<\/p>\n<div class=\"see-more-wrapper lazy see-more-open see-more-blank extra-content\" data-src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2026\/05\/05\/khamzat-chimaev-hopes-biggest-career-payday-at-ufc-328-is-his-last-fight-at-middleweight\/none\" data-type=\"subscribe\">\n<div class=\"see-more subscribe\">\n<figure class=\"newsletter\">\n<div><svg class=\"loading\" width=\"118\" height=\"36\" viewbox=\"0 0 118 36\"><use href=\"#dots-svg\"><\/use><\/svg><\/p>\n<div class=\"signup\"><span class=\"hf\">Join Our Newsletter<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our greatest Bloody Elbow content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Follow us on Google Discover Khamzat Chimaev recently addressed his future plans ahead of his first middleweight title defense. Chimaev\u2019s coach said that he asked his fighter to ignore moving up a weight class in the intervening time to be able to give attention to the duty at hand. \u2018Borz\u2019 is about to headline his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21048],"tags":[2056,21,10248,1253,1041,10247,9342,30963,3928],"class_list":["post-329983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mma","tag-biggest","tag-career","tag-chimaev","tag-fight","tag-hopes","tag-khamzat","tag-middleweight","tag-payday","tag-ufc"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329986,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329983\/revisions\/329986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}