Khamzat Chimaev sent a stern message to Sean Strickland ahead of their middleweight title fight at UFC 328.

Chimaev is set to defend his middleweight title in the main event of UFC 328 on Saturday in Newark, New Jersey, against Strickland in a highly anticipated bout. Heading into the fight, Chimaev is a sizable betting favorite, and he understands why as he expects to make easy work of the American.

“He can try whatever he wants to try, but it’s not going to work with me. I see him only doing like jab, jab, right hand, jab. So, if we do just a boxing fight, I can beat this guy up. But, I never think about my opponent’s style. Why should I think about what he’s going to do? He has only one thing. Just hope. You see UFC 328, going to go there to smash that guy,” Chimaev said on the UFC 328 Countdown.

Chimaev expects that no matter where the fight takes place, he will be able to make quick work of Strickland and defend his middleweight title with ease.

Khamzat Chimaev has been dominant in his UFC career, so he’s expecting to have another dominant performance. Strickland, however, is oozing with confidence in his own right as he believes he can shock the world again to reclaim his middleweight title.

Chimaev enters UFC 328 with a record of 15-0 and is coming off a dominant decision win over Dricus Du Plessis to win the middleweight title. He’s 9-0 in the UFC and has notable wins over Robert Whittaker, Kamaru Usman, Kevin Holland, and Gilbert Burns, among others.

UFC 328 Fight Card

The full fight card for UFC 328 on Saturday, featuring two title fights, is as follows:

Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland – middleweight title fight
Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira – flyweight title fight
Alexander Volkov vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Sean Brady vs. Joaquin Buckley
King Green vs. Jeremy Stephens
Joel Alvarez vs. Yaroslav Amosov
Grant Dawson vs. Mateusz Rebecki
Jim Miller vs. Jared Gordon
Roman Kopylov vs. Marco Tulio
Pat Sabatini vs. William Gomis
Baisangur Susurkaev vs. Djorden Santos
Clayton Carpenter vs. Jose Ocoha

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