Khamzat Chimaev lost the UFC middleweight title on Saturday night after a split-decision loss to Sean Strickland, and now Dana White has stated that the star is already planning to move up to light-heavyweight.

“[Khamzat] literally walked up to me after the fight and said ‘I want to move up. I don’t want to fight in this weight class anymore,’” White revealed at the UFC 328 post-fight press conference.

There was talk during fight week that the 32-year-old Chimaev had to cut a whopping 46lbs to make weight for Saturday night’s fight, and he certainly looked like he’d had a tough battle doing that when he stepped up onto the scales on Friday.

And White believes that did have a part to play in Chimaev not being at his best on Saturday night, despite a strong start.

“What was interesting was the first two times I saw [Khamzat] fight on Fight Island, he used to talk about his standup and his team all the time,” White said. “I was saying we haven’t seen him stand up and really go toe-to-toe with somebody in a while. But I think he had a rough weight cut.

“He’s a tough guy. He’s a f*cking savage. I would expect him not to roll over and quit.”

It’s been known for some time that Khamzat wasn’t planning to stick around in the middleweight division much longer anyway, and it’s possible that even if he had successfully defended the title against Strickland that he would have moved up anyway.

Now it seems to be official though, but it’s too early to know who he might face when the former welterweight fighter does make his 205lb debut.

“I’m not even thinking about [who he’ll fight next],” White said. “But him moving up is exciting.”