{"id":665494,"date":"2026-05-12T23:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665494\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:59:08","slug":"chimaevs-teammates-baffled-by-ufc-328-loss-to-strickland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665494\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimaev\u2019s teammates baffled by UFC 328 loss to Strickland"},"content":{"rendered":"

What exactly happened to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328<\/a>?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question many fans \u2014 and even some of his own teammates \u2014 are still asking after the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion suffered the first loss of his professional career this past weekend (Sat., May 9, 2026), dropping a razor-close split decision<\/a> to Sean Strickland inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

The five-round title fight has become one of the most debated decisions of the year<\/a>. Some fans believe Chimaev\u2019s heavier shots and grappling control did enough to secure the victory, while others argue Strickland\u2019s volume and activity \u2014 especially late \u2014 stole the fight.<\/p>\n

Either way, it was incredibly close.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it was really hard to watch because I wasn\u2019t watching the Khamzat I know,\u201d Rountree said on the JAXXON Podcast. \u201cIt was hard for me to count every round and really analyze the fight because I was so shocked, like, \u2018What\u2019s wrong with Khamzat?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Rountree admitted he was emotionally invested in the fight and still scored it for Chimaev.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first round was great, the second round things took a huge turn,\u201d Rountree continued. \u201cThen after round three \u2014 after that round was done I remember checking off a box and giving that round to Khamzat, I\u2019m biased. Round four, I was like okay, cool \u2014 we\u2019re up three rounds going into five and then round five I blurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, all to say, I think he did enough to win the fight \u2014 rounds 1, 3 and 4,\u201d he added. \u201cI think if a rematch happens, things look completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former UFC Middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, who also trained with Chimaev during camp \u2014 and openly dislikes Strickland<\/a> \u2014 agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019s why he won,\u201d Rockhold said when referencing Strickland\u2019s massive underdog odds. \u201cI think Khamzat won the fourth and fifth round. He controlled the pace of how that fight finished and that is what champions who deserve the championship do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rockhold also questioned the scoring criteria and implied outside narratives may have influenced the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d Rockhold said. \u201cThe only thing that makes sense is that he was a +500 underdog and sometimes things gets sketchy. Maybe it was who they wanted to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What exactly happened to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328? That\u2019s the question many fans \u2014 and even some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,208767,139445,702,7788,3194],"class_list":["post-665494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-328","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-results","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665494","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=665494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}