Khamzat Chimaev came out of his fight against Kamaru Usaman at UFC 294 with a close majority decision win. That victory also puts him in the No. 1 contender’s spot for a middleweight title fight against Sean Strickland.
“Tarzan” wasn’t impressed with the UFC’s decision to award his first belt defense to a couple of fighters moving up from welterweight. He voiced his opposition to the matchmaking coming into Abu Dhabi, and now he’s continuing to talk Chimaev down as a challenger. That doesn’t mean he won’t fight him, though.
“The only thing I like about Chimaev is that he sells fights,” Strickland said on UFC’s Extra Rounds show (via The Mac Life). “For some reason, people f—ing like him or don’t like him. I don’t know. To me, he’s a f—ing paycheck. He sells a lot of fights. People pay to watch, but he f—ing hasn’t earned it. He doesn’t f—ing deserve it, but here we are.”
“Give it to him. He sells a lot of fights. I’ll go fight the f—ing man for five rounds. But no, he’s not earned it. He doesn’t f—ing deserve it. And getting a decision with a welterweight off the couch is not f—ing earning it.”
Strickland made it clear that he isn’t afraid of facing Chimaev. He brought up an incident where Khamzat had taken something he said wrong while they were training together — hard to imagine “Tarzan” saying something offensive, isn’t it?
“He sent me a message talking s—,” Strickland recalled. “And I said ‘Chimaev, you misunderstood. But I will see you tomorrow at 3 o’f—ing clock, gloves or no gloves, come turn up. And then guess what? No show. No answer. We talked it out, he said ‘No, no, it’s okay, we talk about it.’”
“Here’s the thing about Chimaev, the man can fight, we all know that. He beat Usman to a decision, Usman old and retiring but whatever, he’s still good. But me and him are f—ing different. Chimaev could be right here, and I would fight that man to the death right here.”
With multiple sources reporting that Chimaev is currently unable to secure a visa to enter the United States, Strickland doesn’t have to worry too much about “Borz” suddenly appearing in Las Vegas. There is the UFC’s big debut event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia coming up for March. If the UFC wants to make this title shot happen, there’s no better date than that.
They just have to hope Khamzat is healthy for it.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
