Sean Strickland expressed his strong disapproval of Khamzat Chimaev sharing footage from their past sparring session, interpreting it as a sign of Chimaev’s character ahead of their UFC 328 middleweight title bout.
The highly anticipated fight is set to headline UFC 328 this Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Tensions between Strickland and Chimaev have been escalating since the fight was announced. As fight week commenced, Chimaev further intensified the rivalry by posting a clip on social media.
On Tuesday, the undefeated fighter, Khamzat Chimaev, released a 25-second video of a sparring session he had with Sean Strickland at the Xtreme Couture gym. This particular sparring encounter has been a recurring point of contention between the two rivals, with both offering differing accounts and engaging in verbal sparring.
The shared footage primarily featured brief striking exchanges between the fighters and was accompanied by the caption, “I am bullying weak people.” The video did not include any grappling and offered no clear indication of one fighter dominating the other.
Following the release of the clip, Sean Strickland believes it only confirmed his negative perception of Khamzat Chimaev.
During the UFC 328 media day, Sean Strickland directly addressed Khamzat Chimaev’s decision to release the sparring footage prior to their championship clash. The former middleweight champion dismissed the clip, characterizing it as merely a light sparring round and stating he was unaware it was being recorded.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Strickland stated. “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 fighter also revealed that he only sparred with Chimaev on one occasion, despite his attempts to secure more training rounds. Strickland claims that Chimaev showed little interest in extending the session, which is why he feels the significance attributed to their brief encounter is exaggerated.
“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.”
