Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev will have to hold off on a much-talked about move to light heavyweight, at least for now.
On Thursday, UFC officials announced that Chimaev (15-0) will make his first title defense in May, when he’ll take on Sean Strickland (30-7) in the main event of UFC 328.
The card takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on May 9, 2026, and sees Alexander Volkov vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta serving as co-headliner.
Chimaev defeated Dricus Du Plessis with apparent ease at UFC 319 last August. That marked the Chechen’s long-awaited summit at the top of the middleweight mountain. The only knock on “Borz” over the past few years has been his lack of activity, partly due to illness. He’s fought just once in each of 2023, 2024, and 2025.
That’s a drastic change of course from his early UFC career, when he set activity records in the promotion.
Strickland reinserted himself in the title picture by defeated the surging Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez by knockout in the main event of UFC Houston last month. After shocking the MMA world by defeating Israel Adesanya to claim gold in September of 2023, Strickland lost the title to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in Toronto the following January.
A win over Paulo Costa earned Strickland a second crack at Du Plessis last year, but that fight didn’t go his way either. Yet with Reinier de Ridder falling off, Caio Borralho coming off a single win, and Hernandez having had the best case for a chance at gold, Strickland’s timing has proven perfect.
Thought Nassourdine Imavov might have something to say about it.
Announced for the UFC 328 card on May 9 are the following match-ups:
- Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland – for the UFC middleweight championship
- Alexander Volkov vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
- Sean Brady vs. Joaquin Buckley
- Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov
- King Green vs. Jeremy Stephens
- Ateba Gautier vs. Ozzy Diaz
