“The middleweight division doesn’t exist” – Sean Strickland blasts Khamzat Chimaev’s title defense timeline
Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland took some major shots at current champion Khamzat Chimaev in a social media post.
In a recent video, Strickland spoke about his plans after his suspension from the Tuff-N-Uff event was over.
‘Tarzan’ said he was offered a fight against Anthony Hernandez at UFC 325 but turned it down. The high taxes in Australia, where UFC 325 will be held, was his reason for not accepting the bout.
In the same video, Strickland also took a shot at Chimaev.
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Chimaev won the gold against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 after a dominating performance, but Strickland wasn’t pleased with the champion’s plans.
‘Borz’ recently posted an update where he implied that he wanted Nassourdine Imavov as his next challenger. However, that fight would not take place until the first half of 2026 since Chimaev is injured and is set to undergo surgery.
‘Borz’ hinted that the fight would take place after Ramadan, the Islamic fasting period. That riled up Strickland, who took offense to Chimaev’s return timeline:
“Middleweight division is on f****** ice, dude. You got Chimaev the w****. He has Ramadan, then he has a surgery, then he’s gonna fight Nassourdine in a year and just dry hump Nassourdine, then he’s going to go back home and kiss the dictator, maybe his ovaries are hurting. The middleweight division doesn’t exist, I’d be better off trying to fight for the 205 belt now that the middleweight belt, it don’t exist anymore.”
While Chimaev is one of the most popular UFC fighters, his activity in the promotion hasn’t been the greatest. ‘Borz’ has fought just once a year since 2023, and he had only two fights in 2022.
‘Borz’ also posted a retirement video in March 2021 following a bout with COVID-19. However, he returned to UFC action against Li Jingliang in October 2021.
Check out Sean Strickland’s comments below:
The dictator Strickland was referring to is Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen region. Chimaev has been pictured several times with the Russian leader, and recently, Jon Jones was also seen in Chechnya with Chimaev.
Strickland hasn’t fought since losing to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312 in February. He won the UFC middleweight title by shocking Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.
However, the American lost the belt in his first title defense to du Plessis at UFC 297.
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Edited by Saiyed Adeem Karim
