Daniel Cormier believes fans might see the best version of Khamzat Chimaev when he steps into the cage with Sean Strickland.
The undefeated Chimaev is scheduled for his first middleweight title defense on May 9 at UFC 328 in Newark, N.J., where he faces Strickland, a former champion. Chimaev and Strickland have had plenty to say about each other, with the most intriguing aspect of their beef revolving around their previous training sessions together.
Strickland claims Chimaev acted like a bully in the gym, with Strickland having to humble him; Chimaev replied by pointing out that he won his title in lopsided fashion from Dricus du Plessis, who twice defeated Strickland in championship bouts. However, Chimaev might have taken Strickland’s words to heart, because Cormier is hearing that Chimaev has taken his preparation to another level ahead of UFC 328.
“I have heard stories out of the Chimaev camp that Chimaev is training so hard and putting it on guys, elite-level guys, like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I have heard Khamzat Chimaev wants people to go so hard with him to try to beat him and submit him, he’s paying them. He doesn’t care. I’ve got some guys at my gym that know people there that are like, ‘This dude, if somebody can submit him, there’s, like, money.’
“The Saints got in trouble for Bountygate. Khamzat’s putting a bounty on himself to make guys give him all that they have. It’s different.”
Cormier’s “Bountygate” comment refers to an NFL scandal involving Cormier’s beloved New Orleans Saints. The Super Bowl XLIV champions were discovered to have implemented a bounty system from 2009-2012 in which defensive players would be rewarded for targeting and injuring players on the opposite team. Cormier believes Chimaev is adopting that same philosophy, but turning it on himself.
As far as Strickland’s story goes, Cormier can’t speak on its veracity, but he’s certain someone out there knows the truth.
“Obviously, we know that those guys were training together and at a point it looked like they might have been friends,” Cormier said. “But when I hear them talk about the training sessions and talk about the way they feel about each other, someone’s lying because guys, people were in the gym when the were training. Someone was getting their ass kicked. Sean says it was Khamzat, Khamzat said it was Sean. Sean’s saying, ‘Maybe I’ll pick the toughest guy and I’ll let him get in positions.’
“Somebody knows what happened in those training sessions. You can get a pretty good gauge as to what is going to happen in the fight after those training sessions, but neither one of these dudes are blinking an eye.”
From what Cormier knows of Chimaev, he doubts Strickland’s account is accurate. However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t giving Strickland a good chance to pull off the upset on May 9.
“If I know Khamzat Chimaev—and I’ve met him and I know him pretty good—quitting does not seem like something Khamzat would do,” Cormier said. “It just doesn’t. And if the stories are to be believed of what I am hearing in this gym right now, Khamzat Chimaev is firing on all cylinders.
“But if you watch Sean, he was, too, down in Houston. Against [Anthony] ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez, he looked like he was a world-beater going into that fight against Sean Strickland. Sean stops him with a nasty knee. It was crazy.”
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