The fighter hotel in Morristown, New Jersey, this week was not a comfortable place to be. Khamzat Chimaev spent much of his time posted near the lobby entrance. Four police officers formed a human shield around Sean Strickland as he moved between media appearances. A strict scheduling system was put in place specifically to keep the two men from crossing paths before Saturday night.
Chimaev, 32, carries a perfect 15-0 record into the Prudential Center in Newark, where he will make the first defense of his middleweight title against Strickland, the former champion who goes in at 30-7. The fight headlines UFC 328 and caps a feud that CBS Sports reports began in 2022 when Chimaev, a grappler from Russia's Chechen Republic, visited Strickland's gym to train. What happened there has never been fully detailed publicly, but the stories that leaked out cemented a mutual hostility that has grown steadily since.
Strickland, a 35-year-old from California who trains out of Las Vegas, has made no effort to lower the temperature during fight week. In recent weeks he openly threatened to shoot Chimaev and his team if they approached him outside the Octagon. At the hotel, he was direct about his feelings when asked about the added police presence.
"No, [the added security] doesn't make sense when you let a f---ing neanderthal come into this country who can't keep his shit together for five days," Strickland said about Chimaev. "And the worst part about it is, you're not even being a man and saying you are willing to fight in the parking lot. You say that your friends are willing. So, security is here, dude, because you are the scum of the Earth. It reminds me that I'm fighting a man who has zero f---ing dignity."
Asked whether the fight between the two was always going to happen one way or another, Strickland put it simply: "It would've happened no matter what. Either in a f---ing parking lot with 15 of his friends while he is hiding in the bathroom or in the a f---ing Octagon."
The intensity surrounding the matchup has drawn comparisons to some of the most bitter feuds in UFC history, including Jon Jones versus Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov versus Conor McGregor, and Kamaru Usman versus Colby Covington. Whether or not those comparisons hold up historically, the security footprint alone at this week's hotel marked the situation as something unusual even by UFC standards.
Chimaev enters as champion and the pound-for-pound ranked fighter in the division. Strickland, who held the middleweight title before losing it, is looking to reclaim the belt he once carried. The two meet Saturday night inside the Prudential Center, with the card streaming on Paramount+.
