UFC 328 headliner and middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev has responded to comments made by Sean Strickland suggesting the American would open fire if Chimaev’s team went after him outside the cage.
The comments, the latest escalation in the feud between the former training partners, might be seen as promotion, but they’ve strayed into dangerous territory in an American where shootings are as common as hot dogs at a ballpark.
Chimaev, however, doubts the authenticity of Strickland’s comments. At least, that’s the point he seemed to illustrate speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press on Thursday.
“Bro he didn’t shoot any chickens in the world, how’s he going to shoot a human?” questioned Chimaev (15-0). He’d go on to add that “I don’t think the guy wants a real war outside the cage. If he wanted [that], he would be dead already.”
Asked again if he thought Strickland might actually go through with a shooting, Chimaev said that in New Jersey, it might be a bad idea. “Bro, in New Jersey, this is Muslim community. It’s my home. I don’t think he’s going to come out with the guns there. Otherwise there will be a lot of people in jail, because he’s dead.”
Strickland is no stranger to making death threats and previously threatened to murder Dricus Du Plessis during their feud a few years back. Instead, he simply lost a pair of fights to the South African.
Chimaev, who noted that “clowns are always going to talk” on Thursday, also addressed the pair’s training history.
“He never had success with me. It’s not going to be different this time as well. I was fighting 170 that time, so imagine I beat him on that weight. I was cutting the weight, at that time I beat him. Right now, people know how big I am, how hungry I am.”
“I like white American chicken,” he added.
As for Strickland’s deluge of trash talk, Khamzat sees an upside to it on the promotional front. “I like his talking, it’s good for me. I don’t need to worry about, like I need to talk. he’s talking for everyone.”
Watch Thursday’s full media scrum with UFC 328 headliner Khamzat Chimaev above.
