Henry Cejudo believes Khamzat Chimaev can make welterweight but needs to adjust his approach

At UFC 279, Chimaev missed weight for his scheduled 170-pound bout by a whopping 7.5 pounds. Although it was Chimaev's first weight miss in the UFC, the amount he missed by led many to question if "Borz" is capable of making the welterweight limit.

Even Chimaev's friend and teammate, Darren Till, said he believes middleweight is a better place for the rising star, but former two-division champion Henry Cejudo believes Chimaev can make 170 pounds, he just needs to make some adjustments.

"You're not going to make it, if you don't pull together, you're not going to make it and you'll never make that weight again. Trust me. Even if you have big balls, you're not going to do it because when you're out that much, picture this, he's fighting to make 178. He gave it everything he had, his coach said his tongue was wide, he was throwing up, all those other things. I've been there before. He's going to have to modify his training a whole lot. He's probably training too much and that's allowing his metabolism to eat too much. There's a way to do it where you can still make weight, still feel good, while you're not working your body too much because even though you're working your body, you can also lose weight. I used to do that, that's the only reason why I say that."

Cejudo has his own documented weight issues. Prior to signing with the UFC, Cejudo repeatedly struggled to make the flyweight limit, and his original promotional debut was scrapped when Cejudo suffered medical issues as a result of his weight cut. Cejudo was eventually able to resolve his issues and won the flyweight gold in the UFC.

And Chimaev may be in a similar situation because aside from the weight miss, his performances have been spectacular. Chimaev defeated Kevin Holland at UFC 279, extending his perfect UFC record to 4-0, and that was almost as disappointing for Cejudo as the weight miss. Not because it was bad, but because he wants to see how good "Borz" really is.

"It was great, but at the same time, I wanted to see him work, because if he's not tapping Kevin Holland, how does he look in the third, fourth, and fifth round? I was really looking forward to seeing him against a competitor that really challenges him because then we would know how good he is, but Kevin Holland has a big hole and it's called wrestling, and it was an easy job for him. But I also saw his breathing getting a little heavy, which I thought was a bit suspicious for Chimaev."