Sam Calavitta on the moment he knew Khamzat Chimaev would become UFC champion
Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) sought help from strength and conditioning coach Calavitta to address the criticism surrounding his cardio as he prepares for his first championship fight. Chimaev challenges Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) for the middleweight title in Saturday's main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at United Center in Chicago.
Calavitta is known to put his athletes through the ringer, but even he had to try and tame both Chimaev, and UFC 319 co-headliner Aaron Pico, who takes on Lerone Murphy.
"The guys were training, and I'm following their recovery on the phone and their heart rate every morning so I can actually tell how to moderate the workout," Calavitta said on "Good Guy/Bad Guy." "I was looking at Khamzat's, and we were scheduled to go three rounds and I saw on the second round, I was like, you know what? Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. That's one of the things that we miss in combat sports. We always think it's go, go, go, but that doesn't always get you there. So what happened is, I pulled Khamzat off after two rounds and sat him down in the corner of the garage right there.
"I said, 'We're good for today,' and he goes, 'One more round, coach Cal, one more round,' and then I looked right over at Aaron Pico and said, 'Aaron, Khamzat wants one more round,' and Pico goes, 'Let's go five more!' and the two got up in each other's faces and just went at it. But they compete against each other in everything. ... So when Khamzat said that, and he says, 'One more round,' because everybody around me, all the other people there, there was a whole entourage of people there. They said, 'Oh, that's enough,' and I said, 'Fine, that's good.' Khamzat says, 'One more round.' I knew then he's champ. I knew then he's champ."
Calavitta has worked with several fighters, most notably former UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw at his Treigning Lab, but knows not everyone is throwing their hand up to jump into his garage.
"Khamzat, pretty soft-spoken guy, doesn't have to say a lot of words because he fully believes in the capacity of where he's come from and where he's going," Calavitta said. "He's got the eye. Look at their eye, that's why they come to the garage. A lot of guys won't come to the garage because they are not comfortable with being uncomfortable. Khamzat thrives there."
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