Chris Avila had a front-row ticket to watch the chaos earlier this month at UFC 279.
Avila’s teammate and mentor Nate Diaz was at the center of the drama in Las Vegas after Diaz’s original opponent, Khamzat Chimaev, missed weight by 7. 5 pounds a day out from fight night. Chimaev’s egregious weight miss set in motion a flurry of last-minute card changes, which ultimately left Diaz fighting and defeating Tony Ferguson as the pay-per-view’s main event, while Chimaev took on Kevin Holland in the co-headlining bout.
Avila has been in the fight game for nearly a decade, yet the 29-year-old Diaz disciple said he’s never been part of a scene quite like what UFC 279 fight week became.
“It was a crazy two weeks. We were there for 2 weeks but it was crazy,” Avila stated Wednesday at The MMA Hour HTML1.
“That whole turnaround was f****** insane. Khamzat being that [overweight] was very unprofessional. Good things do happen to people who are good, and Nate is a good ****** dude. However, f ****** Khamzat isn’t too great of a guy. He’s a piece of s*** for f****** missing weight, and that’s on him. He ain’t going to get that bag [from fighting Diaz], so whatever. That was 2-0 for Nate, dog. This was two wins in a single week .”
Chimaev’s weight miss was simply the piece de resistance of a UFC 279 experience that was already heading off the rails. The event’s pre-fight press conference was cancelled in an unprecedented move once Chimaev, Diaz, Holland, and members of their respective teams were all involved in a backstage melee. Even before this, it had an uncanny feel to it, considering Diaz’s contract dispute with UFC, and his impending freedom agency. Many critics believe that the Chimaev-Diaz booking was just the UFC’s attempt to send Diaz out for a loss by scheduling the Chimaev against Diaz bout.
” That was filthy,” Avila stated, but they were exposed by Nate. It was a good turnout for Nate, and it all just favored him [in the end]. It’s crazy, it was crazy. He was able to face Tony, which was great. Tony is an OG. He’s been in UFC since the beginning.
” All that talk about Khamzat over there going to destroy whoop whoop whoop was just bulls***. I think the fight would’ve turned out the same way it did with Tony, 100 percent. [Diaz would’ve submitted him,] I believe so, yeah, either standing or the same way, unless all Khamzat wanted to do was f****** hold on for dear life, scared as f***.”
As it turned out the whole mess was a blessing for Team Diaz. The popular 37-year-old exited the UFC off a high-profile win and now finds himself poised to be one of the most coveted free agents in MMA history, and Diaz’s plans are already in motion for starting his own promotion: Real Fight Inc.
It’s a project that is important to Avila as well, as Avila said he expects to represent Diaz’s new brand in his upcoming Oct. 29 boxing match against YouTube celebrity Dr. Mike, a 32-year-old physician whose real name is Mikhail Varshavski. The matchup is slated to open the Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva pay-per-view and will serve as Varshavski’s pro boxing debut.
” I feel it’s an opportunity to showcase who and what I can do, as well as get my name out there,” Avila stated. “And I’m excited because I’m starting the pay-per-view off, I’m fighting a guy who gets a lot of views and he sells tickets and whatnot, and I’m excited to go out there and show everybody who are the real fighters. And I see everybody — like, the era right now is all these YouTubers coming out and trying to get in the fight game and trying to fight anybody [who’s] a real fighter. It’s an exciting opportunity, but I don’t really know.
“I believe I’m kickstarting [things for the brand], I’ll be the first fighter to represent the Real Fight Inc.,” Avila continued, “and then we’ve got a whole army afterward. I believe [Diaz] is planning for Real Fight Inc. shortly — just after this fight [we] will be throwing a big fight card with Real Fight Inc. and I have some big names I should be fighting there. So that’s coming soon too, that’s coming real soon actually.”
Already 1-1 as a pro boxer, Avila said he expects Real Fight Inc.’s first event to arrive in 2023.
In the meantime, the UFC vet admitted that the pressure will be on him Oct. 29 to represent Team Diaz and prove there’s a difference between a real fighter and a viral influencer.
” Who wants to be a loser to a man who is a doctor. No doctor is trying to win me over. Come on,” Avila said.
“But, I train like I would fight Mike Tyson. No, I don’t train funny s ***.”
