{"id":538858,"date":"2026-03-15T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T22:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/538858\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T22:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T22:32:08","slug":"chimaev-drops-rountree-in-sparring-footage-ahead-of-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/538858\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimaev Drops Rountree in Sparring Footage Ahead of UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New sparring footage of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmanews.com\/tag\/khamzat-chimaev\" class=\"tag-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> dropping light heavyweight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmanews.com\/tag\/khalil-rountree-jr-2\" class=\"tag-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Khalil Rountree Jr<\/a>. has circulated ahead of the UFC middleweight champion&#8217;s title defense at UFC 328 on May 9 against Sean Strickland, sending MMA social media into a frenzy.<\/p>\n<p>Chimaev hasn&#8217;t competed since claiming the middleweight title with a dominant performance over Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 last August. His impressive striking on a fighter who competes at 205 pounds reinforces the picture of a champion operating at a dangerous level heading into the grudge match with Strickland.<\/p>\n<p>Du Plessis Gives Strickland a Real Shot<\/p>\n<p>Former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis, who lost the title to Chimaev and previously defeated Strickland, offered a notable assessment of the May 9 matchup. &#8220;Sean Strickland has a very good chance against Khamzat Chimaev,&#8221; du Plessis said, one of the most credible Strickland endorsements heading into fight night.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"YouTube video player\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"object-cover group-hover:opacity-90 transition-opacity duration-200 ease-out\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent;will-change:opacity\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773613928_575_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>UFC 328 is shaping up as one of the most anticipated events of the year. Strickland&#8217;s ability to apply pressure and absorb punishment makes him a legitimate threat, and with DDP sounding the alarm, the champion will have little room for complacency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New sparring footage of Khamzat Chimaev dropping light heavyweight Khalil Rountree Jr. has circulated ahead of the UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,48474,5899,638,82],"class_list":["post-538858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-khalil-rountree-jr","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}