Daniel Cormier ‘Proud’ Of Khamzat Chimaev For Pushing Down On Towel At UFC 267 Weigh-Ins

Former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier has claimed he is “proud” of undefeated welterweight finisher, Khamzat Chimaev following the UFC 267 weigh-ins last week — with the Chechen-born contender appearing to take a play from Cormier’s book by pushing his weight down on the weigh-in towel.

Cormier, who retired from professional mixed martial arts back in August of last year following a trilogy rubber match loss to fellow former heavyweight champion, Stipe Miocic, drew mass attention all the way back in April 2017 at UFC 210 in his rematch with Anthony Johnson, when he appeared to spread his weight out on the weigh-in towel during the official weigh-ins, having come in over the championship weight of 205lbs by 1.2lbs at his first attempt.

Upon reflection, it appeared that Cormier had placed his hands on either of the privacy towel during his second weigh-in attempt — spreading out his weight to successfully make the light heavyweight limit and keep his championship bout with Johnson intact.

During the official weigh-ins for UFC 267 last weekend on ‘Fight Island’, the aforenoted AllStars MMA trainee, Chimaev appeared to adopt a similar tactic to Cormier back at UFC 210 — to successfully make the welterweight limit for his main card bout with Li Jingliang.

Daniel Cormier praises Khamzat Chimaev for utilizing towel at UFC 267 weigh-ins

Speaking with Ryan Clark on the latest episode of DC & RC — Cormier claimed he was proud of Chimaev, as well as joking that the #10 ranked contender pushed down on the towel too hard.

“Khamzat [Chimaev[, I’m proud of you man,” Cormier said. “I’m proud of you with (sic) the way you handled the scale. Because you know Khamzat got his hand on that towel, he pressed too much though. Khamzat pressed too much. Khamzat you can’t press that much, man. Khamzat done pressing the towel and lost six pounds. So Heidi Dean goes, ‘Guys, did he lose six pounds?’“

Eventually going on to stop Jingliang with a brutal, punishing rear-naked choke with just over three minutes elapsed in the opening round of their clash — the newly ranked challenger received some more praise from Cormier.

“There was no way for Li Jingliang to heat him or in [Khamzat Chimaev’s] mind,” Cormier explained. “Dude, you’ve got to remember, Li just knocked out Santiago Ponzinibbio and was ranked #11 in the world, And he’s never been finished and Khamzat made it look easy.” (Transcribed by Sportskeeda)

Off the back of his spectacular win in Abu Dhabi, UAE — Chimaev has called for a showdown with Nate Diaz next, and UFC president, Dana White has confirmed that he is “100 percent” willing to match the two together next.