Khamzat Chimaev is taking aim at Sean Strickland in the aftermath of UFC Houston.

Strickland had some words for the UFC Middleweight Champion going into Saturday’s showdown with Anthony Hernandez. In an interview with Newsweek Sports, Strickland blasted Chimaev for focusing more on Alex Pereira than making his first title defense.

“He always does that [expletive], dude,” Strickland said. “He probably thinks it’s going to be a hard fight, and he probably thinks, ‘I don’t want to do it. It’s a hard fight.’ Every [expletive] fight the guy fights, he’s injured. Every fight. You wanna see the break on my shoulder? I’ll show you the X-ray. Every fight this guy, he has some mysterious [expletive] injury. There’s no proof of it. There’s no MRI, there’s no X-ray, but for some reason you [expletive] fight, everything breaks on you.”

Strickland continued his rant on Chimaev after he scored a third-round TKO finish over Hernandez. The former 185-pound ruler didn’t mince words when letting his intentions be known.

“I don’t know, man,” Strickland said. “If Chimaev finally gets off the bench, I’d like a piece of that little Chechen [expletive], but you never know with him, bro. You never know with that guy, but that’s who I want.”

It didn’t take long for Chimaev to respond on social media. The champion reminded Strickland about one key fact.

“Habibi come down,” Chimaev wrote. “I destroyed the guy who beat you twice. American [expletive].”

Chimaev won the UFC middleweight gold when he kept Dricus du Plessis grounded for a dominant unanimous decision. That fight took place back in Aug. 2025 and there is no word on when “Borz” will make his first title defense.

Do you think Sean Strickland should be booked for a title fight against Khamzat Chimaev? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.