Sean Strickland believes Khamzat Chimaev revealed his true nature by sharing footage of their sparring session. Strickland is set to face the reigning middleweight champion, Chimaev, in the main event of UFC 328 this Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Tensions between Strickland and Chimaev had been building for a while before UFC 328 was officially announced. With fight week now in full swing and the fighters continuing their verbal exchanges, Chimaev has seemingly escalated the conflict by posting a recent clip on social media.
On Tuesday, the undefeated fighter shared a brief 25-second video from his sparring session with Sean Strickland at the Xtreme Couture gym. This sparring session had been a frequent topic of discussion between the two rivals, with both fighters offering differing accounts and continuing to insult each other.
The clip itself showed only a few short striking exchanges between the fighters and was accompanied by the caption, “I am bullying weak people.” No grappling was depicted, and the footage did not clearly indicate that either fighter had the upper hand.
Now, Sean Strickland feels that the footage only confirmed his negative opinion of Khamzat Chimaev.
Sean Strickland Unleashes on Khamzat Chimaev Following Sparring Footage Release Before UFC 328
During the UFC 328 media day, Sean Strickland reacted to Khamzat Chimaev releasing footage from their past training session just before their championship bout. The former middleweight champion downplayed the clip, stating it was merely a light sparring round and that he was unaware it was being filmed.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Strickland said. “The guy’s just a little fu*king rat. One, I didn’t know we were filming. Those are our warmup rounds. You’re just a weak man. You’re just a weak, weak man. It’s like what is the point? We’re light sparring. I mean those shorts are a little questionable on my part. They were Amazon. It was a bad angle.”
The outspoken American also revealed that he only sparred with Chimaev once, despite repeatedly attempting to arrange more rounds. According to Strickland, Chimaev showed little interest in extending the session, which is why he believes the brief encounter has been overblown.
“We’ve only sparred once and we did like a three-round spar. We sparred once. I kept telling you this. When I got to a gym, I want to spar the best guy. I want to spar him but he would always just go beat up the lower level guys.”