Sean Strickland warns Khamzat Chimaev 'I'll have my way with you' when pair finally fight

01/30/2025 06:19 AM

Sean Strickland has sent a chilling warning to Khamzat Chimaev as the pair move closer to a long-awaited meeting in the octagon.

The former middleweight champion is fully focused on taking the belt back from Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 next week. But he is aware that the Swede is almost certain to be the next challenger for the title regardless of who wins.

And despite previously training with Chimaev in sessions where he admits to being tapped out multiple times, the American is very confident of getting a win when they do square off.

• Who is Sean Strickland?Get to know the controversial former UFC Middleweight champion

Sean Strickland sends chilling warning to Khamzat Chimaev as fight moves closer

As Sean Strickland prepares to head to Australia for another world title effort, his next fight seems to have a looming shadow. The man who casts such a silhouette is Khamzat Chimaev, who many feel is the rightful top contender after obliterating Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 in October.

“He’s a good money fight,” Strickland admitted during an interview with The Schmo. “I welcome it, you’re a good money fight. We’re going to go in that nice deep water, you’re going to wrestle for three minutes and get nice and tired.

“Then I’m going to have my way with you Chimaev, it’s going to be real nice. And by the way, Chimaev, every now and then these guys are all a bunch of ***** in this organization, they’re all a bunch of ****** dude.

Sean Strickland explains why Khamzat Chimaev ‘isn’t a man’

Strickland’s issue with Chimaev appears to begin outside of the octagon. He believes that a cyptocurrency gone wrong was a ‘scam’ from the middleweight contender, and that it was done on purpose to fleece his followers.

“I don’t even consider Chimaev a man and let me tell you why,” Strickland continued. “That little crypto scam that he had going on, I had someone approach me and say ‘Sean, don’t quote me on this I’m just ball-parking numbers, I’ll give you $200,000 right off the start and 40/40% of this’.

“They wanted to make a coin of me, and the moment they said that I was like ‘you’re a f***ing con artist, I’m not going to f***ing do that, you’re a piece of s***’. I don’t care if I’d make $500,000 or a million, I’m not going to f***ing do that.

“What did Chimaev say? ‘I’m going to go f*** my fans over, I want to go f*** my fans over’. Chimaev, to me, it’s like ‘can you fight, can you wrestle? Sure’ But I don’t look at you like a man and you shouldn’t look at yourself like a man either.”

Sean Strickland previously admitted to tapping out to Khamzat Chimaev in training

It’s a drastic change from an interview with The Schmo that Strickland gave three years ago, when he admitted to having been submitted multiple times by Chimaev. There is also footage from around the time of the middleweight telling his now-rival to take it easy on others because he of how good he is.

“The guy is f***ing crazy,” Strickland said in a very different tone of interview at the time. “I mean, he believes in himself so much.” He then asked Schmo, whose real name is Dave Schmulenson, what he thought of the session.

This lead to an awkward exchange, before Schmo was forced to admit that he had seen Chimaev make Strickland tap out multiple times just moments before. “Listen guys, jiu jitsu?” Strickland teased. “I do the f***ing man dance.

“I’m not trying to f***ing take you down and put my c*** in your face or give you an aggressive hug. I’m trying to do the f***ing man dance.”

• Who is Dana White? All you need to know about the CEO and President of the UFC