Khamzat Chimaev doesn\u2019t like much of anything Sean Strickland has said leading up to their fight at UFC 328 but he appreciate every word seems to be adding zeroes to his bank account.<\/p>\n
The disdain between the middleweights is well known with Strickland using just about every derogative word in the dictionary to take aim at Chimaev. In response, Chimaev has largely remained calm, cool and collective while promising to settle the score once they meet in the octagon on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
But for all the bad blood between them, Chimaev says Strickland hyping up this fight has definitely been good for him financially.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love him,\u201d Chimaev told reporters including MMA Fighting during a scrum on Tuesday. \u201cI don\u2019t know they pay good for him. That\u2019s the important thing. I never made that much money before. That\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UFC has gone to extremes to keep Chimaev and Strickland separated before they are forced to interact later this week at the customary pre-fight press conference on Thursday and then the weigh-ins on Friday.<\/p>\n
The promotion has also hired extra security to ensure nothing happens before Chimaev and Strickland actually set foot in the octagon together on Saturday.<\/p>\n
For his part, Chimaev admits he\u2019s had an eye out looking for Strickland since he first arrived in New Jersey but the UFC has done a good job keeping them away from each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet him come,\u201d Chimaev said. \u201cI think they took him to some other hotel so maybe thinks so. I tried to find the guy and that\u2019s not so much personal. The guy just talks too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s that possible [for any back and forth] to happen. Because they don\u2019t let me see this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chimaev also referenced an earlier threat made by Strickland where the former middleweight champion said if he gets jumped during fight week that he\u2019s going to bring a gun and he\u2019s willing to open fire if necessary.<\/p>\n
As highly unlikely as that is to happen, Chimaev isn\u2019t concerned about Strickland trying to unleash deadly violence on him or his team before UFC 328 arrives on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is he? I\u2019ve been here three days in the lobby and the guy said he\u2019s going to shoot me,\u201d Chimaev said. \u201cLet\u2019s go. Do that. I will be happy to die.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think I care about what he says? When it comes time to die, I will be happy. All my life I\u2019ve heard stuff like that. I don\u2019t care about that shit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Considering the tension and all the trash talk between them, Chimaev and Strickland aren\u2019t likely to bury the hatchet no matter the result in the fight.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Chimaev could only scoff at a question about his willingness to put everything behind him when the fight is over and actually shake Strickland\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
Truth be told, Chimaev doesn\u2019t really care one way or another if he maintains a good relationship with any of his past opponents and the same goes for Strickland after they finally clash on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the point if I shake hands or not after the fight?\u201d Chimaev said. \u201cI beat him up, maybe never see him again The other 15 guys who I beat, I almost didn\u2019t see them again. I don\u2019t care about his life. I care about my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Khamzat Chimaev doesn\u2019t like much of anything Sean Strickland has said leading up to their fight at UFC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":["post-652735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652735","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=652735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}