Growing increasingly frustrated at an apparently fleeting title shot promise from the promotion, Khamzat Chimaev has ripped an attack on former titleholder, Sean Strickland at UFC 297 – pointing to prior dominant gym wins over the recent main event star.
Chimaev, the current number nine ranked middleweight contender, most recently turned in a close, majority decision win over former undisputed welterweight champion and previous pound-for-pound number one, Kamaru Usman in the pair’s short-notice co-main event clash at UFC 294 back in October.
And initially slated to make his return on the Abu Dhabi, UAE card in an officially-billed title-eliminator fight against former title challenger, Paulo Costa by UFC CEO, Dana White, Chimaev has since gone scorched-earth on the promotional boss, claiming he broke a promise of giving him a title fight in his return to the Octagon.
“All these guys fight me, but I’m not the only one undefeated and undisputed,” Khamzat Chimaev told ESPN MMA. “13-0, so I don’t know. They [the UFC] promised me after [the] (Kamaru) Usman fight, ‘You will for sure going to fight for the title’, and I win that fight. I don’t know what’s going on. I heard Dana White say stuff like, ‘I don’t think Khamzat is next for the title.’ That’s bullsh*t, man.”
“If you promised me something, you have to answer for your words,” Khamzat Chimaev explained. “I’m the guy who always answers for my words so I don’t care if it’s some president or something, like a king. If you give me your word, you have to answer for that. So, I grow up, when I give word, you have to answer for it… We’re doing that. I will be happy to answer for my word about killing them, man. So, we’ll see – maybe in the USA, it’s a different mentally.”
Sean Strickland receives flak from Khamzat Chimaev
And reflecting on Strickland’s loss to newly-crowned champion, Dricus du Plessis and the former’s reluctance to offer him a title fight if he won at UFC 297 last weekend, Chimaev pointed to apparent dominant gym wins over the former champion.
“Ask that guy (Sean Strickland), who was beating him up every day in the gym,” Khamzat Chimaev explained. “How many times I submit that guy? How many times I beat him up. He went to his coach, ‘Please, tell the guy, man, go easy, go easy.’ And the guy said I went crazy with some guy who was 166 [pounds] or this sh*t. He’s lying, man. He’s trying to say I am this, I am that. He’s trying to be some macho man. You are not a macho man.”
Would you like to see Sean Strickland fight Khamzat Chimaev in the future?