Dominick Cruz is backing the underdog. The former champion is picking Sean Strickland to upset undefeated middleweight titleholder Khamzat Chimaev in the UFC 328 main event on May 9 in Newark, N.J.
Chimaev, the UFC middleweight champion, enters his first title defense with a 15-0 MMA record and 9-0 mark in the UFC. Strickland, a former champion himself, brings a 30-7 MMA record and 17-7 UFC slate into the matchup.
Cruz believes Strickland’s ground game and experience getting back to his feet could pose different problems than Dricus Du Plessis, who Chimaev dominated on the mat to win the belt. “It's going to be similar with Sean. Sean's not an easy guy to hold down. He's very, very well seasoned from his back to getting up. It's just his game. I had a similar game, and I'm very hard to hold down. Strickland has that same mentality. With DDP, he wasn't making some of the best decisions from his back.”
Ultimately, Cruz is planting his flag with the American challenger. “I'll go with Strickland,” he said, later adding, “I'll go with the American. Why not? It's not so lopsided to me. I like Strickland. I like this style. He brings all the things to the table that make this a real fight. His style of striking is built for a wrestler to try to take him down. If there was a guy that could challenge Khamzat, this is the guy. We need to see it. I like it. I'll take him. Why not? Let's go American.”
Cruz also thinks Strickland’s role as a sizable underdog could be an advantage. “The expectation goes up, so you're always supposed to win. So Strickland being the underdog is going to help him in this fight. It's an 'everyone is looking past me' type of thing.”
