{"id":551621,"date":"2026-03-20T00:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551621\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T00:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:03:09","slug":"former-ufc-champ-claims-sean-stricklands-stupidity-earned-surprise-title-shot-against-khamzat-chimaev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551621\/","title":{"rendered":"Former UFC champ claims Sean Strickland&#8217;s &#8216;stupidity&#8217; earned surprise title shot against Khamzat Chimaev"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of Sean Strickland\u2019s longtime detractors didn\u2019t hold back on the former UFC middleweight champ getting a UFC 328 title shot.<\/p>\n<p>UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev will look to begin his title reign on a positive note when he squares off with former titleholder Sean Strickland at UFC 328. Chimaev vs. Strickland headlines an intriguing card in Newark, featuring two middleweights who have been on each other\u2019s nerves for months.<\/p>\n<p>Strickland received the next title shot after an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/sean-strickland\/pros-react-after-sean-strickland-tkos-anthony-hernandez-at-ufc-houston\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">impressive win over Anthony Hernandez<\/a> at UFC Houston. Despite a lopsided defeat at UFC 312 against Dricus du Plessis, the UFC matchmakers awarded Strickland the title shot over top contender Nassourdine Imavov and others.<\/p>\n<p>Many question the validity of Strickland\u2019s upcoming title fight and whether or not Strickland\u2019s most recent win was enough to surpass Imavov in the title mix. According to one former UFC champion, Strickland\u2019s title shot reflects a bigger problem with modern Mixed Martial Arts.<\/p>\n<p>Belal Muhammad: Sean Strickland\u2019s title shot reflects \u2018stupidity\u2019 of modern MMA<\/p>\n<p>In a recent video uploaded to his <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/5fqueo17xaQ?si=_A1z2SYvnTYg5A7O\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a> channel, former UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad weighed in on Chimaev vs. Strickland.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt sucks for Imavov, I thought he earned a title shot and that he was going to get one. But I think the trash talk, stupidity, and the era that we live in now, where Strickland talks his way into a title shot. You know it\u2019s going to get people to talk and watch,\u201d Muhammad said of Strickland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one thing I\u2019m excited for is for Chimaev to smash him and walk through him. He\u2019ll be able to take him down, control him, and I\u2019m hoping he\u2019ll open him up a little bit and break him mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UFC analyst Din Thomas recently pointed to Strickland as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/sean-strickland\/sean-strickland-only-middleweight-dethrone-khamzat-chimaev\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">only middleweight who can stop Chimaev\u2019s title reign<\/a>. Chimaev, unbeaten in his professional career, won the belt by defeating Du Plessis at UFC 319 last year.<\/p>\n<p>What is your prediction for Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland? Let us know in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Sean Strickland\u2019s longtime detractors didn\u2019t hold back on the former UFC middleweight champ getting a UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,40142,786,4120,785,43022,85,787,266293],"class_list":["post-551621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belal-muhammad","tag-fighting","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sean-strickland","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-328"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}