Sean Strickland has staked his claim, in and out of the UFC Octagon, for a title shot against Khamzat Chimaev.
On Saturday, Strickland blasted past Anthony Hernandez with a third-round TKO win in Houston. In doing so, the former middleweight champion bounced back from a title-fight loss to Dricus Du Plessis, while ending Hernandez’s eight-fight win streak.
The result also edged Strickland closer to a shot at reigning champion Chimaev, an old training partner with whom the American has a longstanding grudge.
In his post-fight press conference on Saturday, the controversial Strickland addressed a claim by Chimaev that the Russian submitted him in training.
“I made him quit training,” said Strickland, 34. “Witnesses in the audience, where’s Eric [Nicksick, coach] at? I made him quit.
“No, [he didn’t submit me], we were doing positional grappling. ‘Alright, start on my back,’ and I was like... first round, I let him f***ing choke me, because no one gives a f***.”
Strickland, who came under fire last week after making sexist comments, continued: “Let me tell you about this little b***h. I’ll tell you.
“When I walk into a gym, do you think that I go find the little, weakest man? I say, ‘Let’s spar’? [No], I go find the biggest, baddest motherf*****, and I’m like: ‘Hey, I want to spar you.’
“Every time Chimaev would walk in the gym, he would pick the smallest, lowest-level pro and say: ‘But oh, he looks like my opponent.’ He would pick the smallest guy. Chimaev’s a f***ing bully.
“And if you notice what he does in a division, he just runs and f***ing hides. ‘Now I want to go to 205[lb] and fight f***ing Jiri [Prochazka], who’s not even the f***ing champ.’ You just run and f***ing hide. You did it when you trained with us, and you’re doing it in the f***ing division.
“Look at when he fought my boy, Gilbert f***ing Burns, good f***ing family man [...] Gilbert Burns f***ing pulled his card. Gilbert Burns is like 5ft 8in and almost f***ed him up, did a God-damn good job. Gilbert Burns is a savage, but it’s like: you’re just a f***ing bully.”
Strickland was referring to one of Chimaev’s welterweight bouts, when he narrowly outpointed Burns in 2022 after surviving a knockdown.
It is currently expected that Chimaev’s next fight will be a middleweight-title defence against Nassourdine Imavov, although the champion has said he would rather not fight the Frenchman. Instead, the unbeaten Chimaev has been calling for fights at light-heavyweight, as Strickland hinted, including one against incumbent champion Alex Pereira.
In any case, Strickland’s win over Hernandez might have moved him closer to a shot at the middleweight belt, which he held from September 2023 until January 2024.
Strickland dropped the belt to Du Plessis on points, bounced back with a decision win over Paulo Costa, then suffered another points loss to “DDP” last February.
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