Sean Strickland did it again.
Strickland pulled off another huge upset in a title fight, defeating Khamzat Chimaev via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) to reclaim the middleweight championship in the UFC 328 main event Saturday night at Prudential Center in Newark.
He’s the second two-time middleweight champion in UFC history, joining Israel Adesanya.
Strickland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in MMA when he dethroned Adesanya in September 2023. He dropped the belt in his first defense against Dricus Du Plessis in January 2024 and failed to recapture it in a February 2025 rematch.
Chimaev, one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport entering Saturday’s bout, suffered the first loss of his career, falling to 15-1 as a professional.
Chimaev got off to a great start against Strickland, taking him down 15 seconds into the fight, spending the rest of the round in control on the ground, and even attempting a submission.
The tide turned in Strickland’s favor in the second round. Chimaev opted to strike with Strickland for the first minute and a half before Strickland stuffed his takedown attempt and wound up on top. Strickland racked up three minutes of control time to even up the fight.
The third round was arguably the closest of the fight. Strickland and Chimaev spent all of it exchanging punches on the feet, with Chimaev bloodying Strickland’s nose. This was the first round in which Chimaev didn’t attempt a takedown since his April 2022 win over Gilbert Burns.
Chimaev landed the more effective strikes in the fourth round and then took Strickland down in the final minute. In the fifth round, Strickland overcame several takedowns and outlanded Chimaev to seal the win.
UFC CEO Dana White said Chimaev told him after the fight that he wants to move up to the light heavyweight division. Chimaev appeared to have a difficult weight cut and said earlier this week he hoped this would be his lone 185-pound title defense.
“He literally walked up to me after the fight and said, ‘I want to move up. I don’t want to fight in this weight class anymore,'” White said at the postfight press conference. “… Him moving up is exciting.”
Strickland is now riding a two-fight winning streak. He earned another crack at the title with a third-round TKO victory over Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez in February.
Chimaev failed to successfully defend the belt after routing Du Plessis to become the champion at UFC 319 last August. The 32-year-old Chechen’s Octagon record now sits at 9-1.
