Sean Strickland has fired back at Khamzat Chimaev’s street fight comments as their UFC 328 middleweight title clash approaches.
Strickland is set to face Chimaev in the main event of UFC 328 on May 9 in Newark, N.J., where he will attempt to regain the middleweight belt from the undefeated champion.
Chimaev, described as the UFC middleweight champion with a 15-0 professional record and a decision win over Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 to claim the 185-pound title, made headlines in a vlog by drawing a line between a sanctioned fight and a street encounter, saying, "Out on the street, that’s different—if he dies, he dies."
Strickland responded on social media, explaining why the comments hit his radar. "I generally don’t post my location or my whereabouts, I don’t really drop pins where I’m at, I just don’t like to," he said. "But I was on Instagram and some stupid shit popped up in my feed about Chimaev saying you try to fight me, you’ll kill me in the streets."
He then claimed he had been training close to Chimaev’s California gym. "Dude, I was, like, 10 minutes from your gym. I was dropping tags and locations all day on my Instagram. Your homies that train with you follow me, they were seeing my story. You had to know where I was at. Ten minutes from your gym, bro, I was probably right down the street with you," Strickland said.
Strickland, a former middleweight champion, also referenced past issues involving Chimaev and Paulo Costa, adding, "Part of me thought you’d show up, but as we all know with Costa, when he pulled your card, ‘Hold me back, hold me back.’ I’m like the last dude in America you should threaten, but I guess if you don’t show up, you don’t show up."
