Sean Strickland cannot avoid Khamzat Chimaev.<\/p>\n
In May, Strickland handed Chimaev the first loss of his MMA career, taking a split decision over him at UFC 328 to win the middleweight title. After the loss, Chimaev lobbied for an immediate rematch with Strickland, but in the ensuing months, it became apparent that Nassourdine Imavov would be first up for the new middleweight champion. But recently, things hit a snag as Strickland started feuding with the UFC over pay, saying that if this cannot be resolved, he\u2019d rather vacate his title and move to light heavyweight so he can quickly fight out his contract.<\/p>\n
If he does that, Chimaev will be close behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he goes up to 205, I\u2019ll go after him and take his head,\u201d Chimaev told MMA Fighting\u2019s Mike Heck. I go straight after [him]. If he goes higher weight, I\u2019ll go to heavyweight. This guy is not going to run from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grudge match between Strickland and Chimaev was one of the biggest events of 2026, and since winning the title, Chimaev has made it clear that he\u2019s primarily focused on getting the biggest fights possible. That\u2019s why he\u2019s so interested in a rematch with Strickland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re gonna pay good for our fight,\u201d Chimaev said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I go after [him]. It\u2019s a big check.\u201d<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen how the situation between Strickland and the UFC will play out. The promotion was rumored to be targeting Strickland\u2019s first title defense for the end of the year or early 2027, but now it\u2019s a question of whether Strickland will even defend the belt. As for Chimaev, whatever happens, he just wants it to be settled so he can get back to action soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully soon, very soon,\u201d Chimaev said about his return. \u201cI\u2019ve been training, asking about a fight. So we\u2019ll see. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on with him and Imavov and those guys. If they fight, they fight. If they don\u2019t fight, I want to fight with some of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland cannot avoid Khamzat Chimaev. In May, Strickland handed Chimaev the first loss of his MMA career,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":["post-942661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942661","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=942661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}