‘Not a F*cking Man’: Sean Strickland Rips Into Khamzat Chimaev Over Fight and Life Choices

Ahead of his title fight against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312, Sean Strickland is spraying shots at everyone in the middleweight division. And the latest on Strickland’s list is another title contender, Khamzat ‘Borz’ Chimaev. Strickland simply doesn’t believe the hype around the Chechen fighter. But that wasn’t nearly enough, so he also tore in Chimaev’s ‘crypto scam’ and his choice of being close to Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov. 

If Strickland wins against DDP at UFC 312, he is likely to face Chimaev for his first title defense. Chimaev has long been touted as championship material but has been held back by his own illnesses over the course of the last couple of years. However, when he finally made his return to the octagon at UFC 308, ‘Borz’ ensured it was an empathetic one. He defeated former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in under a round and practically broke his jaw.

Despite this, Strickland claims that he would destroy Chimaev in a fight. Asserting that Whittaker’s career has been a series of hot and cold moments, Strickland discredited Chimaev’s win at UFC 308 and said,

“Anyone who fights that guy is going to get a f*king paycheck dude. Rob is known to either be a fking superstar or a f*king can and he was a can. He was just met with too much pressure.”

Strickland followed it up by going on a tirade about how he had moved out of the country because he was being persecuted but had then returned to cozy up with the same man responsible for it. This was followed by a snide remark about the Chimaev-endorsed ‘SMASH’ coin.

After I am done with Chimaev he is going to go back to peddling crypto scams. Can Chimaev fight? Yeah. He can fight. But you’re not a f*cking man.”

Earlier last year, Chimaev faced accusations of a “crypto rug pull” after he promoted the Solana-based memecoin. He pushed the coin heavily on social media which caused its value to rise, only to crash over 90% within 24 hours. 

Investigators claimed Khamzat and his team orchestrated a pump-and-dump scam, walking away with up to $1 million. While the full details couldn’t be confirmed, the incident left a stain on Chimaev’s reputation. The fighter later explained the situation and squarely placed the blame on his manager. 

“Well, my manager… you can say acted stupidly, and I also made a mistake in this crypto. I don’t understand [crypto] at all. I trust my manager.”

Since the controversy, Chimaev has seemingly adopted a new calmer, modest avatar compared to his previous brash persona.

The curious case of humble Chimaev

Chimaev famously gave a post-fight octagon interview with Daniel Cormier in 2020, that not only went viral but was associated with him for a long time. His catchphrase became so popular that it became a GIF!

In a feat of ecstasy, Chimaev declared that he was the king and he would fight everybody and if anybody dared step inside the octagon with him, he would kill them. And that was that.

Every time he fought and won after that, he reiterated another version of the same statement; he screamed it into the mic as a matter of fact. But things soon took a sad turn for the ‘boogeyman’ of the middleweight division.

COVID had allegedly had a seriously bad effect on his health and his body simply couldn’t keep up with his extreme training techniques.

As a result of this, he had to cancel multiple fights and pull out of some big PPVs at the 11th hour. So the goodwill he had built on absolutely ragdolling his opponents was running out.

However, Chimaev had surgery and when he eventually got healthy, he did show up for the Whittaker fight at UFC 308. Except, this time, he wasn’t going around screaming into mics. His tone had surprisingly changed. When asked about it at a presser, he claimed that he was always respectful to guys who respected him in return.

“If someone respectful to me, I will be x10 times more respectful to him. And if he is disrespectful, I am a dangerous guy.”

Now, whether or not this was a carefully orchestrated PR campaign after the disastrous year he had is still debatable. But one thing is for sure, Strickland has ensured Chimaev will not be humble or respectful when the two clash at some point inside the octagon.