The UFC is selling May 9 in Newark as a war. r/mmamemes, as usual, is selling something more honest. Spend ten minutes on the sub and the consensus around this main event is hard to miss — and it isn't the one in the promo trailer.
Three memes in particular have been doing real numbers. Read together, they don't argue about who wins. They argue about what happens around the fact that Khamzat wins.
Meme #1: "Watch this shit happen again to Strickland"
Watch this shit happen again to Strickland
by u/Big_Trouble3823 in mmamemes
The cartoon is a still frame from UFC 319 — Khamzat on top, Du Plessis underneath in his South African shorts, hammer fists coming down. The "again" in the caption is doing all the work. The meme isn't predicting a knockout. It's predicting a re-run.
Top comment in the thread quotes Du Plessis from his post-fight interview — "He deserves this 100 percent. He beat me fair and square tonight. He was the better man tonight" — and uses it as the speech Strickland will have to give on May 9. Word for word.
The bit isn't "Sean's soft." Sean isn't soft. He's never been finished in the UFC and he's the most durable middleweight in the division. The bit is that durability and survival aren't a game plan against a guy who never gets tired and breaks people in increments.
Meme #2: The galaxy brain knows the fight will get cancelled
khamzat chimaev vs sean strickland
by u/vikash_28 in mmamemes
The expanding-brain template, MMA edition: Strickland will win (small brain), Khamzat smash (bigger brain), fight gets cancelled (full glowing galaxy brain).
The comments are a victory lap. "Kazmat will miss weight." "He weighed in 2 pounds under last time i think he'll be fine." "I simply just dont care about khamzats bi yearly fight." "Bi yearly as in he'll fight every 2 years from now on."
Six years of Khamzat receipts behind that joke — UFC 279, the mystery illness, the once-a-year fight schedule, the long list of opponents who showed up to fight week not knowing if the fight would actually happen. Nothing right now actually points to a cancellation. Both men look healthy. The card is on track. The galaxy-brain take isn't a prediction — it's a running gag the sub has earned the right to make.
The best comment under the post comes from a user named sneakiboi777: "Thats the galaxy brain move from Strickland. Get as much hype behind the fight as you can, say fucked up shit to get canceled so you don't have to get ragdolled on live television for 25 minutes, get even more attention from the cancelation, get a new fight, profit."
That's not a joke. That's a five-step business plan.
Meme #3: "Sean Strickland fight week"
khamzat chimaev vs sean strickland
by u/vikash_28 in mmamemes
Black-and-white security cam, a driveway, two figures, one face blurred out. The footage is real and well-known inside MMA circles — Strickland pulling a gun on someone outside his home. Not from this fight week. Not from any fight week. Just Sean.
The caption — "Sean Strickland fight week" — is the joke, and the joke isn't about behaviour. It's about firepower. The implication: a gun is the only thing that's going to help him against Khamzat. Everything else, he's already tried.
It's a hard dunk, even for r/mmamemes. Which is why the comments are interesting — a chunk of the sub refuses to play along. Top reply, twenty-two upvotes: "No?" Below it: "it isn't though." And the sharpest one in the thread: "Dude's so thirsty for that sweet karma that he forgot it aint." Translation: the OP wants to see Strickland get destroyed so badly he forgot it hasn't actually happened yet.
A second argument breaks out underneath, this one about how Strickland fights. Somebody mocks his promo voice — "YEAH WERE GONNA GO OUT THERE AND BLEED YEAH MAN A WAR (Fights a sound defensively oriented fight that ends in a decision). Shut up Sean." — and a Top 1% commenter immediately fires back: "To be fair sometime he gives us bangers. Sean's got a lot of exciting fights — izzy, ddp, fluffy, Brendan allen, abus, jack marshman — even the cannonier fight wasn't bad."
That's the actual texture of the sub on this fight. A majority cheering for the beating. A loud minority of Strickland fans in the comments throwing punches anyway. Neither side moving.
What you're really reading
Across all three threads the median view is the same: Khamzat wins, the only real question is how and for how long. The first meme draws the picture. The second jokes that we may not even get to see it. The third writes the eulogy in advance.
There's a small but loud Strickland faction that won't accept any of it, and they're the reason the comment sections actually move. Without them you'd just have a victory lap. With them, you have a fight before the fight.
May 9 in Newark settles which side of the comment thread was right.
All memes and quoted comments are from r/mmamemes. Spelling and punctuation in user comments preserved as posted.
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