A heated grudge match, and the first-ever title fight fight between two fighters born post-millennium headlines Saturday’s UFC 328 in Newark.
Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, a Chechen with ties to dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, faces American Sean Strickland in the fiery main event. A divisive figure with half of fight fans seeing Strickland as a loudmouth and the other half as a free speech champion, “Tarzan” has done his best to get under Chimaev’s skin all week long. Calling him a terrorist due to his ties to Kadyrov, and a lot worse, Strickland appeared to have achieved the result he was looking for when Chimaev attempted to land a low blow during Thursday’s pre-fight press conference.
Whether or not agitating the unbeaten “Borz” pays off inside the octagon is another matter, of course.
In the night’s co-main event, Josh Van looks to make the first defense of his flyweight title opposite Japan’s Tatsuro Taira. It’s the first time two fighters born after 2000 will compete for UFC gold, and the first all-Asian title fight among UFC men (Weili Zhang and Yan Xiaonan beat them to it on the women’s side). Still a huge fight, as Van noted, for the Asian community. And should Taira win, he’ll become the first-ever Japanese UFC champion.
Our picks are in for UFC 328 — check below to see who we feel will come out on top.
| Writer / Fight | Green vs. Stephens | Brady vs. Buckley | Volkov vs. Cortes-Acosta | Van vs. Taira | Chimaev vs. Strickland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett Cagle (54-23) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Mathis Desjardins (47-21) | |  | | | |
| Alex Behunin (52-27) | | | | |  |
| Jay Anderson (49-30) | | | | | |
| Eddie Law (47-32) | | |  | | |
| Chris Prawdzik (31-25) | | | |  | |
One thing is clear: our crew does not like Sean Strickland’s chances against Khamzat Chimaev on Saturday. Only one writer responding selected Strickland to dethrone “Borz.” Perhaps surprisingly, Tatsuro Taira was also close to a lock to unseat champ Josh Van.
King Green was the strongest favorite of the night, taking 100% of our picks. Not surprising, with opponent Jeremy Stephens having missed weight for the lightweight main card opener after being out for a year.
