UFC 328: Chimaev vs Strickland - May 9 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Back in Sopranos land! The Octagon returns to Newark, New Jersey…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Khamzat Chimaev©️vs Sean Strickland - Middleweight Title 

Joshua Van©️vs Tatsuro Taira - Flyweight Title

Alexander Volkov vs Waldo Cortes Acosta 

Sean Brady vs Joaquin Buckley 

King Green vs Jeremy Stephens 

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Ateba Gautier vs Ozzy Diaz 

Joel Alvarez vs Yaroslav Amosov 

Grant Dawson vs Mateusz Rebecki 

Jim Miller vs Jared Gordon 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Roman Kopylov vs Marco Tulio

Pat Sabatini vs William Gomis 

Baisangur Susurkaev vs Djorden Santos

Clayton Carpenter vs Jose Ochoa 

 

I like it. Not a mega stacked lineup overall but I think that’s a really solid main card and there’s some good stuff scattered throughout the prelims. Sick of Strickland main events and even sicker of him almost constantly getting title shots but whatever. There was supposed to be a Jan Blachowicz vs Bogdan Guskov rematch of their draw in December on this card. Big Jan’s out with a torn meniscus and, at 43 years old, it’s hard to believe he’ll be back from that. Not sure if Guskov’s staying on the card or what. Hopefully everything else that’s on the card stays intact but I’ll update this post if/when needed.

 

 

Khamzat Chimaev vs Sean Strickland is nearly upon us. Been a surprisingly tame buildup so far considering who’s involved but I expect that to change by fight week. To be honest, I don’t even think Strickland deserves the title shot here. Call me a hater, I don’t give a bollocks. When it comes to Strickland, I am a hater. But I could still admit he deserved it if he’d legitimately earned it. He hasn’t though really. The twat’s 2-2 in his last four fights, and the two losses were in title fights. Nassourdine Imavov got shafted out of his title shot here. But yeah, I get it. Don’t mistake this for me being surprised the UFC matchmakers went this route. We’ve all been following this shit long enough to know how this works. And sadly, a gobshite prick like Strickland will always get more opportunities than they deserve. Khamzat isn’t exactly the most likeable guy either. It’s basically heel vs heel this. But I’d definitely rather Khamzat win given the choice here.

Khamzat finally did it. He became UFC Middleweight champion back in August after absolutely dominating Dricus Du Plessis over five one-sided rounds. Seriously, one of the most lopsided title fights in recent memory. It was a bit of a letdown in that I think everyone was expecting total chaos due to DDP’s weird but dangerous style and it looked like a fascinating clash on paper. On the night though, it was a different story. Turned out DDP had nothing for Khamzat. Zero. Sod all. I said at the time that I found the fight boring to watch but I put most of the blame for that on DDP. He just had no answers for Khamzat’s wrestling at all. To the point it genuinely felt like he came into the fight fully expecting to be able to just brute strength his way out of any grappling situation. Bad, bad mistake. He did have a little brief moment of success in the fifth round but it didn’t last. And by then he needed a finish because he was already 0-4 down. Terrible result for him in every way. And while Khamzat didn’t get the finish, he did get five rounds in. Which is something many doubted he could do pre-fight.

It was a long time coming. When Khamzat first burst on the scene in the UFC back in 2020, I think most fans and media, and probably UFC management, thought he’d be champ within a year or so. He was so active at the start of his UFC run, and winning so easily, it seemed like he was gonna speed run through the Welterweight division at the time. But a bunch of illnesses, health problems and injuries derailed that big time. He missed a big chunk of cage time and there was even talk at one point that he might have to retire. He’d come back sporadically and look like a monster most of the time. But then he’d also miss weight badly, was supposedly unable to fight in the US for a time due to Visa issues and he went the distance with Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. As terrifying as he could look when he showed up, all this combined did raise questions and some doubts on him. Things are looking up for the time being though. After mangling Robert Whittaker’s jaw in late 2024, then ripping the belt off DDP last summer, now he’s booked again here. Hopefully he can keep the ball rolling and stay more active now. An active Khamzat is an even more frightening prospect to think about than the one who’s been in and out and stopping and starting with little consistency. He’s 15-0 now and turns 32 just days before this fight. In theory, he could have years of his prime left if he stays healthy and on track. 

Ugh. Sick of the sight of this sack of dung. Like I said, he doesn’t even really deserve this shot. How many title shots is he gonna get? Fair enough, he’s coming off that TKO win over ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez in February. That was a strong win and he actually wasn’t mind numbingly boring in that fight for a change. It’s still one win though. Before that he’d lost the DDP rematch and it was a lot more one-sided than their first fight. Before that he won that horrible stinker against Paulo Costa, probably the worst fight of 2024. Before that was the first loss to DDP. The ‘Fluffy’ win last time has been the only good thing he’s done since he took the title off Israel Adesanya almost three years ago. And they’ve instantly given him an immediate title shot. I’d kind of get it if they were still having to sell PPVs. As much as I don’t think Strickland is anywhere near the star or the ‘draw’ his fans make him out to be, it’s undeniable that Khamzat vs Strickland is an easier sell than Khamzat vs Imavov would’ve been. But it’s all on Paramount anyway now so it makes no difference whether a fight ‘sells’ really. The UFC already has Paramount’s dough.

Anyway, it’s happening now. Onto the fight itself. There’s actually history here…

Yep. Back in March 2022, Khamzat and Strickland did a bit of training together. Think Khamzat was doing some work with Xtreme Couture back then and that’s when they crossed paths in sparring and grappling. I remember seeing a video at the time, I don’t think there was any actual sparring footage in it but it showed what appeared to be Khamzat and Strickland just after a sparring session. All I remembered was Strickland was proper licking his arse. Just checked, it’s still on YouTube and yeah. Watch the first 30 seconds or so of this yourself and draw your own conclusions about how you think their sparring went…

Literally telling Khamzat, “Be nice. Khamzat, understand you’re better than everybody. Don’t hurt people.” There’s also a clip going around of The Schmo doing an interview with Strickland just after sparring Khamzat and he as good as admits Khamzat had his way in the grappling. He asks Schmo what he thought of their spar and outright says “Do you think he fucked me up on the ground?” Schmo says to his face, “Well he made you tap a couple of times but do you want the world to know this stuff?” And Strickland just goes “You can tell the world” then says this…

“Listen guys, Jiu-Jitsu? I do the fucking man game. The fucking man dance. I’m not trying to fucking take you down and put my cock in your face or give you an aggressive hug. I’m trying to do the fucking man dance.” - Sean Strickland after sparring Khamzat in 2022

Yeah, Khamzat definitely strangled him a few times, didn’t he? Also, Strickland talking about cocks in faces and doing the “man dance”. He’s not beating those ‘in the closet’ allegations. He’s clearly pining for some willy. Be yourself Sean. Stop living a lie. It’s safe to come out of the closet. It’s 2026, for fuck’s sake.

In more recent years, Strickland has talked a big game when it comes to Khamzat. Always making sure to throw in “the Chechen” or “that goat fucker” in there. Proper helmet. And it makes me laugh now when you see him talking tough, then look back and see how much he’s desperately trying to make friends with Khamzat a few years earlier in that clip above. Now he’s the big badass. Look at this shit…

This is recent. Just a few weeks out from the fight. He put out a clip of him standing in front of a load of guns, telling Khamzat he was ten minutes from Khamzat’s gym and daring him to show up. Absolute cringe, pathetic shite. Apparently it stems from Khamzat saying in an interview that he’d “kill” Strickland in the street. What relevance that has to a MMA fight I don’t know. But Strickland obviously got all worked up.

“So guys, I generally don’t post my location or drop pins where I’m at, I don’t like to, but I was on Instagram and saw some stupid shit pop up on my feed of Khamzat saying he would try and fight me or kill me on the streets. Dude, I was like 10 minutes away from your gym, I was dropping tags and locations all day on my Instagram, your homies who you train with follow me, they were seeing my story, you had to know where I was at. 10 minutes from your gym, bro, I was probably right down the street from you. I’m like the last dude in America you should threaten.” - Sean Strickland

Best of all is, he’s 35 years old, this fella. Jesus wept. What was he gonna do? Shoot Khamzat? Murder him? Makes sense right? When he’s literally booked to fight him legally in a few weeks, for money and the title. Or was his plan to get Khamzat to show up, cause a scene and hopefully get the fight cancelled? Fucking pillock. And if he wanted to do something to Khamzat so bad and he was only ten minutes away, why didn’t he just go to him instead of piss-arsing about on Instagram like a teenager? Genuinely baffles me that this bellend has fans. If you’re an adult man that admits to liking this geek, you’re literally telling on yourself and exposing that you’re lacking in intelligence, morals and basic judge of character. He is rotten in every way. Nothing cool or badass about a 35 year old man doing an edgelord gimmick.

How we seeing this going then? For all my talk above, I don’t necessarily think Strickland is gonna be an easy night’s work for Khamzat. He might be, Khamzat is just that scary. But I can certainly see a scenario where Strickland is able to extend it to a longer fight and get his bullshit going a bit on the feet. I’ve always admitted that he’s got solid defensive grappling. The problem is, is it gonna be good enough to fend off Khamzat? Especially in the early rounds when Khamzat is fresh and able to go full-pelt. It’s just as likely Khamzat gets Strickland down early and chokes him before Strickland can even get going. That’s always on the table when Khamzat fights. We’ll see. I just hope the fight actually happens. Given the personalities of both and how unpredictable Khamzat can be, they better seriously beef up the security on fight week for this. Because I could easily see something stupid happening two days out or something and the fight gets cancelled. Just keep them apart. Dana’s said there won’t be a pre-fight face-off and they’ll be at separate hotels and all sorts. I’m sure I read that Arman Tsarukyan is gonna be working Khamzat’s corner as well so that’s another combustible element that’s gonna be hovering around on fight week. Just feels like a recipe for disaster. Hopefully it all ends with Khamzat throttling Strickland and finally removing him from the title picture for good.

 

Joshua Van vs Tatsuro Taira is back on! Was originally set to co-main at UFC 327 in Miami but Van picked up a minor injury and withdrew. Glad they got it rescheduled quickly. Love this fight. Unless I’m mistaken, this will be the first time two fighters born in the 2000s will square off for UFC gold. These two were actually supposed to fight at one point back in June 2024 but it ended up getting cancelled. They were just prospects on the rise back then. Now less than two years later, they meet for the belt. Pretty cool.

If you’d asked me a year ago, I never would’ve predicted that Joshua Van would be holding a UFC belt by now. I’ve been high on Van from pretty much day one of his UFC run but I never would’ve called that. Especially when you consider he was getting knocked out by Charles Johnson in July 2024. He’s been so active though, that he moved on quickly from that and the loss kind of became a distant memory in a short space of time. He’s won six fights since then and went 4-0 in 2025. That was obviously his breakthrough year. Specifically the Brandon Royval fight last June. It was supposed to be Royval vs Manel Kape at UFC 317, Kape dropped out. Van, who was ranked #10 at the time, took a gamble and stepped in against #1 ranked Royval on just two weeks notice. It paid off. Van won in a FOTY contender and immediately catapulted himself into title contention. Him and the champ Alexandre Pantoja had a respectful face-off in the cage and that was that.

A new contender had emerged. The fight got made for UFC 323 in December and I was buzzing for it. I did feel like it was probably coming a bit too soon for Van but it was an opportunity that was definitely worth taking because, even if he lost to Pantoja, Van was young enough to come back from it. One thing you could count on, regardless of the result, was it was gonna be a great fight. Well…

Sadly, it was a massive anti-climax. Pantoja threw a headkick and lost his balance, posted his arm as he fell down and that was it. He landed awkwardly on the arm, injured it and couldn’t continue. Shades of the first Shogun Rua vs Mark Coleman fight from Pride. The whole Pantoja vs Van fight lasted just 26 seconds. It was gutting for a few reasons. One, for a great champion like Pantoja to lose the belt that way was shite. Two, it was far from the ideal way for Van to win the belt. But also, in that brief 26 seconds the fight lasted, it was looking like it was shaping up to be a fun one. We were robbed of a potential late FOTY candidate in a year that wasn’t exactly full of them.

All that aside, Joshua Van was now the new Flyweight champ. Like I said, not the best way to win the title and I’ve seen some fan pushback against him for that reason. But none of it was his fault. He was just fighting and trying to win. What’s he meant to do, give the belt back? Of course he’d have preferred to win in a more satisfying and convincing fashion but what can you do? I remember in the fallout of the fight I saw people saying it should’ve been a No Contest but at the end of the day it’s just part of the fight. There were no fouls from Van and Van’s actions were what ultimately caused the chain of events for Pantoja’s fight ending injury to happen. It’s a shitty way for a title fight to end and nobody wants that but it’s something you just have to deal with every now and then in MMA. There are so many ways to get injured when you’re blending striking and grappling, unfortunately it comes with the territory, it’s an occupational hazard. Pantoja will almost certainly get an immediate title shot when he’s ready to return, against whoever the champion is then. But with how busy Van likes to be, I think everyone expected that we’d see a title defence from him against someone else before Pantoja’s return. And here we are.

Tatsuro Taira is in a position to make history here. If he wins this fight, he’ll be the first ever Japanese UFC champion! Crazy that that’s never happened already, isn’t it? He just turned 26 years old in January and he’s 18-1 with 14 of his wins coming by KO/TKO or submission. He went 10-0 with 8 finishes in Japan before debuting in the UFC in May 2022, but his rise up the card was pretty slow. His first five UFC fights were all on the prelims, with four of them being as low as either the first or second fight on the Fight Pass stream. I was a bit baffled by it at the time. A young, undefeated prospect from a market where the UFC was lacking them, and they were burying his fights where nobody but the sickest of fight nerds was gonna see them? All of a sudden, in June 2024, they had him headline the Apex against Alex Perez. He looked good in that fight but won via Perez getting injured. At least he was finally off the prelims though. In the October, he main evented the Apex again and suffered his first defeat, losing a decision against Brandon Royval. Cracking fight though from what I remember. Taira bounced back in 2025 with two wins, and for me he looked better than ever. There are still things he clearly needs to work on but he’s responded to that Royval loss about as well as you could’ve hoped for really. He schooled and subbed Hyun Sung Park in their Apex headliner in August. Then at UFC 323 in December, the same night Van became champ, Taira stopped Brandon Moreno with second round ground and pound.

His biggest win to date. There was some moaning about the stoppage being a bit early and I agreed at the time. Wasn’t the worst stoppage you’ll ever see but I did feel like the ref was just a tad too quick jumping in. Whatever though. Taira himself performed really well that night. He was getting the better of the grappling exchanges and looked big and strong in there for the weight class. And while he’s no K-1 level striker, you can see he’s been trying to make improvements in that area. I like him. This would be huge for him if he can become the first Japanese fighter to hold UFC gold. There’s Horiguchi and Asakura knocking about as well at Flyweight but Taira would obviously beat them both to it with a win here. Big fan of this fight. After years on end of the same few faces dominating the Flyweight title picture - as great as Figgy, Moreno and Pantoja were - it’s nice to finally see a completely fresh title fight between two young and entertaining fighters like this. On paper it feels like a fight that will basically come down to Van’s striking against Taira’s grappling. If Van’s defensive wrestling is good enough to stop the takedowns, I think this could be a bad night for Taira. If Taira can get his grappling going though, well, Japan might have their first UFC champion. Great fight.

 

Alexander Volkov vs Waldo Cortes Acosta isn’t exactly getting the juices flowing but it’s not the worst Heavyweight fight by 2026’s low standards. It’s a sorry state of affairs but this is potentially not far off a title eliminator depending on how the rest of the division plays out for the rest of the year. Sounds mad but when you really think about it, there’s still no timetable for champ Tom Aspinall’s return, Jon Jones is either retiring or unretiring seemingly every other week, and we’ve got Pereira vs Gane for the interim belt at the White House a month after this. It’s wide open. There’s a very real possibility of a scenario playing out where Pereira vs Gane goes down, Aspinall still isn’t cleared to fight and we get the winner of this fight against whoever the interim champ is at the back end of the year. I mean, I hope it doesn’t come to that and I hope Aspinall can return relatively soon. But fuck knows what’s gonna happen. As for this fight, I’m not expecting a barnburner. Volkov is coming off that awful fight against Jailton Almeida in October. One of the worst fights of 2025 easy. Volkov technically won by split decision but it was so bad that nobody really won won. Waldo’s got a bit of momentum. Fought a whopping five times last year and went 4-1. He’s stopped Ante Delija, Shamil Gaziev and Derrick Lewis in his last three. Still don’t see him as anything special but at least he’s not been boring lately like he was earlier in his run. That’s progress, I guess. Hopefully this is short and sweet either way.

 

Sean Brady vs Joaquin Buckley is gonna be ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time and apparently there’s a bit of beef between these two. Nothing major but they definitely don’t get on and they’ve been talking shit back and forth since before they were even booked against each other. Brady is ranked #6 currently and Buckley is at #9 but both are coming off losses. It’s not like either are in danger of being cut with another loss here but they’re both definitely looking to bounce back and make a statement in this one. Another loss at this point wouldn’t be the death knell but you’re obviously then on a losing streak rather than just coming off a single loss. And that’s a slippery slope into decline. 

Brady’s from Philadelphia so this fight being in New Jersey is almost like a home game for him. He’s 33 years old with a record of 18-2. Not a huge finisher, only 9 of his 18 wins were ended inside the distance. But he’s looked a handful in some of his UFC fights. Aside from the blip of a surprising TKO loss to Belal Muhammad in 2022, he was unbeaten until his last fight. And was coming off a dominant submission win over Leon Edwards on the London card in March 2025. It genuinely felt like he was next up for a title shot after that win but Islam Makhachev moving up to 170 pushed him back a bit. He was surely just one win away from a title shot but wanted to stay active and campaigned to get a fight in before the end of 2025. He took a fight with Michael Morales on the MSG card in November and, well, it ended in disaster. Morales steamrolled him in the first round and that was that.

Buckley turns 32 years old just before this fight and he’s 21-7 with 15 by KO/TKO. My first memory of him was that crazy kind of inverted enziguri kick knockout against Impa Kasanganay back in 2020. An absolutely insane KO, one of the best in MMA history if we’re just going on style points. It’ll probably never be replicated. He’s had some alright wins over the years since. Got the TKO against Vicente Luque, knocked out Wonderboy Thompson and, most satisfying of all, beat up Colby Covington and stopped him on cuts. These wins were all in 2024. Good wins, although he was drawing some criticism for basically feeding off washed up and/or ageing names. And it didn’t help when he was then booked in a headliner against Kamaru Usman who was coming off a long layoff. He ended up losing to Usman, which obviously killed off the momentum he’d been building, and he hasn’t fought now since last June.

As for the beef, Brady explained it recently…

“Before me and Buckley were ever slated to fight, I guess it was when I was supposed to fight Jack Della Maddalena and I pulled out because I had staph infection, I couldn’t fight. He made some post about me, saying I don’t wash my ass, just saying some shit. He just talks too much. So I blocked him on Instagram. I can block whoever I want, it’s my life, it’s my Instagram. So I blocked him because I don’t feel like hearing that shit. Then we see each other and he’s like, ‘Why did you block me?’ I’m like, ‘Bro, I don’t do all this social media back and forth shit’. At this time I’d just got booked against Gilbert Burns. I was like, ‘We’re not fighting each other, I have a fight’. We talked for like five minutes, the PI has video footage of it. He was just trying to be funny and I was not being funny. I don’t think he’s a funny dude. He just talks too much.”

“Then he did an interview afterwards and said he seen me, that I didn’t say anything, that he almost felt like he was bullying me. I was like, first off, you ain’t bullying me. I don’t care who you are in this world, if you can beat me up, whatever, but you’re not just gonna talk to me crazy or bully me. He was just bullshitting, lying, saying if he sees me on the streets he would, like, punk me on the streets or some nut ass shit. Bro, I’m from Philly. You’re not just running up on me like I’m some bitch. That’s when I finally…because before I would never even respond to half the shit he would say because he just says shit to say shit. But now we’re fighting each other, now I will address you. Brother, you didn’t punk nobody, you weren’t talking crazy when you seen me in person and now we get to fight and now we get to settle it. So we will see what the fuck is up.” - Sean Brady

Ha! Yeah, I think it’s safe to say Brady isn’t a fan of Buckley. Like I said, this is nothing that deep. It’s all something of nothing really. But we don’t get enough of this now, do we? Just basic smack talk between two fighters who think they can beat the other guy in a fight. It’s so simple but just reading that quote instantly makes me more interested in this fight than I was before I read it. Somewhere along the line, a lot of fighters decided that fight hype should be about everything but who was the better actual fighter and instead about who could get the most controversial soundbites in at the press conference. I just long for the days of Ken Shamrock telling Tito Ortiz he was gonna “knock his hair black”. Not sure how the actual fight goes. I definitely rate Brady more and I think he should win. He’s the better grappler and I remember Buckley having a lot of trouble with Usman’s wrestling last time out. But Brady’s also coming off that bad walloping from Morales so that could be an x-factor. He doesn’t seem the type to doubt himself mentally but you never know how a fighter will rebound from a loss like that, and Buckley can whack a bit. We’ll see.

 

King Green vs Jeremy Stephens is scheduled to kick off the main card. What a throwback. Feels like a fight that should’ve happened well over a decade ago. Green is 39 years old now and this’ll be his 54th pro fight. He’s 34-17–1-1, he’s been around donkeys years and fought pretty much everyone at this point. He’s had some great wins and some bad losses, as you’d expect from someone with the years in the game he’s put in. I was ready to write him off in 2024/25 after those back-to-back losses to Paddy Pimblett and Mauricio Ruffy but he’s managed to hang on and comes into this fight off a couple of wins over Lance Gibson Jr and Daniel Zellhuber. The Zellhuber fight last time out in Mexico was Green’s best performance in a while and he got the finish. Still think he’s on his last legs but there’s some fight in him yet. As for Stephens, one of the hardest hitters in the lighter weight classes. Had some great knockouts, fell on hard times, revived his career in BKFC in recent years. I didn’t really expect to see him back in the UFC. He was brought back last May because they were in his home state of Iowa, and he lost a fun scrap against Mason Jones. When he popped back up in BKFC in October, I assumed his UFC return must’ve been a ‘one and done’ situation. But here we are. I like this. If the vets are gonna fight, I like to see them fight each other. Just feels more fair than feeding them to some 25 year old beast or something. Should be a fun one, even in 2026.

 

Ateba Gautier vs Ozzy Diaz should be a quick first round knock down job for Gautier really. Gautier actually got dragged to a decision by Andrey Pulyaev in his last fight in January. It was his first time going past the first round in the UFC, much less to the scorecards, and despite still getting the win, it felt like a performance that was gonna cool his hype off pretty significantly. I think it’s gonna be a good thing for him in the long run though. He’s dangerous and powerful but he’s also raw and green. The more cage time he gets before stepping up in levels, the better. Had he smashed Pulyaev, they might’ve stepped him up now. I think it’s clear he needs more time and I’ll be quite happy if they just keep giving him this level of opposition for another year, to be honest. He’s just turned 24, he’s got time. Diaz is a bit shite from what I remember. He’s 35 years old, 10-3 and his three losses were all by KO/TKO. He got chinned by Joe Pyfer on DWCS in 2022, had a couple of nothing wins and got bashed up by Zhang Mingyang in the UFC in 2024. He’s coming off a points win over Djorden Santos in March 2025 so he’s been out for over a year now. Yeah, no reason why Gautier shouldn’t be able to whack him out of there early.

 

Joel Alvarez vs Yaroslav Amosov might just be the sleeper on the entire card for me. Really good fight this. Spain’s Alvarez is usually very entertaining to watch. He’s 33 years old now with a record of 23-3 and 22 of his wins not making it to the judges scorecards. The only win he didn’t finish was his last one against Vicente Luque, where he went up in weight for his Welterweight debut. That was a move I was glad to see him make because he’d missed weight more than once at Lightweight. It does make me wonder though, whether his finishing ability is gonna be negatively affected up at 170. First time he was at 170 and it was the first time he wasn’t able to put someone away? Especially someone like Luque who’s more frail these days. I don’t know. He’s still adjusting to the weight class so maybe it’ll come in time.

Ukraine’s Amosov with a fan there. He’s 32 years old with an impressive 29-1 record and 21 finishes. Sambo background, former Bellator Welterweight champion and made his UFC debut at the Apex back in December. He got the standard litmus test that seemingly everyone has to take at Welterweight in Neil Magny. Sounded like a decent test for Amosov’s first night in but it turned out to be nothing of the sort. Amosov just walked through him in a round, subbing him with an anaconda choke. It was a strong debut. Granted, Magny is old and has a bunch of losses. But he was coming off wins going into that Amosov fight and you still have to have something about you to just squash him like that. At a time when we’ve seen Bellator vets like Aaron Pico (in his debut at least) and Patchy Mix struggle after jumping to the UFC, it was refreshing to see Amosov come in and look the business. Really like this fight. If Amosov can do to Alvarez what he did to Magny, the UFC Welterweight division might have a serious player on its hands.

 

Grant Dawson vs Mateusz Rebecki is kind of weird matchmaking to me. They could’ve made Rebecki against Esteban Ribovics, which would’ve been guaranteed chaos. Instead they put them both against grapplers and went with Gamrot vs Ribovics and Dawson vs Rebecki. Although, I guess it’s better for Rebecki’s life expectancy that he doesn’t get into yet another bloodbath dogfight right now. Seriously, you look back at his last four fights, he must’ve knocked years off his life. He’s gone 1-3 in that stretch as well. Just a brutal run of fights. Dawson hasn’t had a walk in the park himself lately. He got starched in 33 seconds by King Green back in 2023, bounced back with three straight wins, but then got stopped by Manuel Torres in about two minutes in his last fight in December. I expect he’ll be looking to exclusively wrestle Rebecki into oblivion here.

 

Jim Miller vs Jared Gordon. I like this. Jim Miller is the hometown hero in New Jersey, Gordon is originally from Queens. It’s New Jersey vs New York. Tony Soprano vs Johnny Sack! Could be a fun battle of veterans this. Gordon’s a tough sod. 37 years old, 21-8-0-1 and apparently fought Rafa Garcia in September with a bum knee after literally being hit by a car after the weigh ins. I’m not even making that up. He lost to Garcia but it was a good old scrap. Oh and Gordon beat Paddy Pimblett in late 2022. We don’t recognise that bullshit as a loss in this house.

Big fan of Jim Miller. How can you not be? I was in attendance for his Octagon debut at UFC 89 in Birmingham way back in 2008. Fast forward to 2026 and he’s got the record for most fights in UFC history, he’s second for most finishes in UFC history, second for most submissions in UFC history, fourth for longest cage time in UFC history and he’s the only man in the history and future of the human race who’s ever gonna be able to say he fought at UFCs 100, 200 and 300. What a career. He’s 38-19-0-1 with 28 finishes and wins over names like Duane Ludwig, Charles Oliveira, Melvin Guillard, Joe Lauzon twice (first fight was one of the best Lightweight fights ever), Takanori Gomi, Thiago Alves, Clay Guida and Donald Cerrone. He’s coming off a loss to Chase Hooper last April here, he’s clearly slowing down. And while it feels like he’s gonna fight until UFC 400, I wouldn’t be shocked if he retires here if it doesn’t go his way. Would make sense with it being New Jersey. He’s gonna be 43 this year, he’s gotta stop soon surely.

 

Roman Kopylov vs Marco Tulio is alright. Not setting the world alight or anything but it’s a decent fight. There was a time when I was quite high on Kopylov. Not to the extent that I ever saw him as a top contender or a serious threat to the Top 10 or something. But I enjoyed watching him and thought he’d be settle into a strong gatekeeper role at 185. It hasn’t quite panned out that way though. He’s 14-5 now and coming off back-to-back decision losses to Paulo Costa and Gregory Rodrigues. He didn’t look good in those losses from what I remember either. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no bum. He’s had some good finishes in the UFC, nasty kicker. But I think his ceiling is a little bit lower than I once thought. Tulio’s 31 years old with a 14-2 record and 11 finishes. He had a good start to his UFC stint, scoring knockouts over Ihor Potieria and Tresean Gore. But he got stopped by Christian Leroy Duncan in his last fight in November. He’s dating Norma Dumont though, so don’t feel sorry for him.

 

Pat Sabatini vs William Gomis is doing nothing for me. Just two guys I’ve never got into at all. Not bad fighters technically, just don’t find them enjoyable to watch. Sabatini’s 35 years old, 21-5, on a three fight winning streak and he’s coming off a decision win over Chepe Mariscal at MSG in November. Watched it, no memory of it. And that basically sums up Sabatini’s whole five year UFC run. He’s a decent fighter, just completely forgettable. Gomis is French, 28 years old and 15-3. He’s coming off a points win over Robert Ruchala on the last Paris card back in September. He’s slightly more memorable than Sabatini but for all the wrong reasons. He’s frustrating as fuck to watch and his fights always seem to be full of fouls and dodginess. Definitely feels like a fight I’m gonna be watching on x2 speed on the Sunday.

 

Baisangur Susurkaev vs Djorden Santos should be worth checking out. In case you forgot, Susurkaev is Khamzat’s boy. He’s 25 years old, undefeated at 11-0 with 10 finishes and he’s currently 2-0 in the UFC. Made his Octagon debut on the Khamzat vs DDP undercard last August, submitting Eric Nolan in the second round. Then he fought again on the MSG card in November and knocked out Eric McConico Jr in the third round. Don’t know what to make of him. From the moment he signed there was cynicism from fans that he had a padded record, was only signed as a favour to Khamzat etc. I don’t remember being overly impressed by him in that last fight against McConico. I don’t know. I guess time will tell. Santos is no great shakes but he might be able to test Susurkaev a bit just due to his toughness. He’s 28 years old, 11-2 and coming off a points win over Danny Barlow on the Vancouver card in October. I do remember that fight and, while sloppy, it was an absolute slugfest and Santos came out on top. He’s never been stopped yet either so, on paper at least, doesn’t seem the type who’s gonna go away easily.

 

Clayton Carpenter vs Jose Ochoa could be fun actually. I’m a bit hazy on Carpenter. Vaguely recall him looking decent early in his UFC run but he’s coming off a couple of losses now. He’s 29 years old and 8-2 with 6 finishes. Ochoa is a guy I remember really enjoying watching though. He’s 1-2 in the UFC though so not ideal. He lost to Lone’er Kavanagh on points in both their UFC debuts in late 2024 but I remember thinking he looked good in defeat. He rebounded with a knockout win over Cody Durden last June. But then unfortunately got stifled to a lacklustre decision loss by fun sponge Asu Almabayev in his last fight in July. He’s Peruvian, 25 years old and 8-2-0-1 with a 100% finish rate. I’d like to see him get back on track here.

 

 

That’s 328. 

Edited May 9 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Cant see anything but an absolute mauling in that main event.

[wandshogun09]

Strickland’s done some interview where he’s threatening to shoot Khamzat and his team if they “try to jump him”. He can’t shut up about this hypothetical situation that hasn’t even happened yet, where they all jump him. He must be having nightmares about it and everything. Pissing the bed, the full works. His fans are going on like it’s some ‘gangsta’ thing and all I can think is he’s just letting the world know he’s shook. I haven’t even seen Khamzat threatening to jump him, it’s Strickland who keeps going on about it. Genuinely think he’s trying to provoke something so the fight gets cancelled at this point. Why would you repeatedly talk about guns and shooting your opponent just over a week out from the fight? Unless you’re trying to get the fight binned? The boy’s regretting signing that contract. 

[Carbomb]

Maybe he's trying to rip a page out of Bryce Mitchell's book, and he'll talk about "being possessed" soon.

[jimufctna24]

On 4/26/2026 at 12:37 AM, wandshogun09 said:

As much as I don’t think Strickland is anywhere near the star or the ‘draw’ his fans make him out to be, it’s undeniable that Khamzat vs Strickland is an easier sell than Khamzat vs Imavov would’ve been. But it’s all on Paramount anyway now so it makes no difference whether a fight ‘sells’ really. The UFC already has Paramount’s dough.

I don't tend to track who is a draw and who is not nowadays, but apparently the ticket sales for this event are horrendous so far. 

[wandshogun09]

Ha, really? Yeah I don’t keep tabs on that stuff either but you just know if he genuinely was smashing it on the PPVs he appeared on in the past, or in ratings for Fight Nights or whatever, his fans would’ve never shut up about it. So I always assumed his numbers were nothing to brag about. 

I think a lot of fans overestimate what social media means with these conversations. Strickland’s fans think he’s a star because his stupid interview clips get a lot of play on Twitter etc. That doesn’t mean he’s a ‘star’. It was the same with Colby Covington. MMA fans just assume these guys are big deals because they chat a lot of shite and get accounts on Twitter talking for a few days after they’ve said something ‘edgy’ in a desperate attempt to be relevant. But how does that translate to being a star in any meaningful way? Someone going on about gay people or immigrants, talking like he’s the hardest fucker on the planet and then 9 times out of 10 fighting like he’s terrified? It’s all bollocks.

I think it’s also a case of the overall standard for what’s considered a ‘star’ in MMA these days being way lower than it used to be. I hate him but Conor McGregor was a star for a spell. Ronda Rousey was a star. Now we’re getting told Sean O’Malley is a star, a lot of newer fans just blindly believe it because the UFC tells them he’s a star but I just don’t buy it. Fuck, I remember when Julianna Pena upset Amanda Nunes and fools were calling her a star and talking like she was gonna ‘save the division’, based on nothing but the fact she waffles a load of nonsensical shit non-stop. Somewhere along the line, MMA fans decided that just making loads of noise equals stardom. 

[jimufctna24]

@wandshogun09

Here you go:

 

[wandshogun09]

It’s what they deserve. It was always gonna have a negative effect eventually. Remember the 2000s when they were desperate to help the sport grow and pushed the idea that MMA was for everyone? Now they’re basically telling everyone who complains about them pushing their political agenda to piss off if you don’t like it. In recent years I bet they ran off a huge chunk of fans who aren’t right wing Trump obsessed cunts. It shouldn’t be political at all. It’s a fucking sport. But they jumped all the way in bed with Trump and UFC shows are basically a big MAGA rally when he’s in attendance.

Did anyone see Dana at that White House correspondent dinner the other day with the shooting? Fucking weirdo. Said something like ‘They told everyone to get down, I didn’t get down I took every minute of it in. It was fucking awesome’. Made a point to sit there with a gormless smirk on his face as the chaos went on around him, just to show how much of a tough guy he is, I suppose. Fucking twat. Most pathetic cringe shit you’ll ever see. And it’s only fuelled the conspiracy theories that the whole thing was fake because Dana’s reaction certainly wasn’t that of a normal human being. Genuinely haven’t seen him as excited in years. I remember when he used to react similarly to fights like Hendo vs Shogun 1 and Hunt vs Bigfoot 1. In 2026 he’s so dead inside that it takes him being in the room when a fucking assassination attempt goes off for him to show any emotion. 

Edited April 30 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

What a treat to kick off fight week! 

Imagine being one of the “4 waiting” to subject themselves to this torture? Why would you do that to yourself? Seriously, if you held a gun to my head and told me to watch this or die, I’d say to the shooter, “tell my wife and kids I love them and that at least I didn’t suffer”.

[Dai]

Never underestimate how many stupid people there are in the world!

 

Say what you like about Strickland, but his fight his Chimaev definately has that "big match" feel to it. I know its nearly all down to Chimaev, but it is still partly down to the negative feelings of wanting Strickland to be beaten also. Chimaev is a 1/5 fav to win this, so we should all be getting our wish with this one.

[jimufctna24]

On 4/30/2026 at 4:36 PM, wandshogun09 said:

It’s what they deserve. It was always gonna have a negative effect eventually. Remember the 2000s when they were desperate to help the sport grow and pushed the idea that MMA was for everyone? Now they’re basically telling everyone who complains about them pushing their political agenda to piss off if you don’t like it. In recent years I bet they ran off a huge chunk of fans who aren’t right wing Trump obsessed cunts. It shouldn’t be political at all. It’s a fucking sport. But they jumped all the way in bed with Trump and UFC shows are basically a big MAGA rally when he’s in attendance.

Funnily enough, back during the pandemic the perception was that "Trump" sports leagues such as the PGA, and indeed the UFC, were experiencing massive business growth, whereas Democrat sports leagues like the NBA were struggling to draw ratings.

Still, I agree that embracing MAGA was always going to alienate a part of their audience eventually, especially since they seem have become more outward with it in recent years. Of course, the quality of their output doesn't help either.

I do actually think the main event of this weekend's card is a very interesting fight. I don't think Strickland will be able to stop Chimaev's early takedowns. However, if Strickland can find ways to create scrambles and/or kick Chiamev off him, it would make Chimaev exert more energy attempting further takedowns. In turn, the fight could become very competitive. Even more so if Strickland can further drain Chiamaev's stamina with his teep kicks. Of course, I would much rather Chimaev win via RNC in the opening round. 

[Egg Shen]

Poor bugger...

 

[Dai]

Jeremy Stephens was 4 pounds overweight. 30% of purse but weigh in four pounds over and not have to bother about a bad cut? Sounds like a deal that's always worth it.

[NeverYield]

Chiamev weight cut surely wont do him any favours at all. His frame is built for LHW surely.

Finding out what weight you are most efficient at is crucial in the ABAs and amateur MMA never mind the high levels of the UFC 

Edited May 9 by NeverYield

[Egg Shen]

I see Chimaev getting Strickland out of there in under 2 rounds tonight, absolute demolition job.