Brendan Allen and Sean Strickland fought six years ago and are currently on divergent paths, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have time to trade a few verbal shots at each other.
Strickland challenges the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev for the middleweight title in this Saturday’s UFC 328 main event in Newark, N.J., and Allen just so happened to be part of Chimaev’s training camp for his upcoming fight. Unsurprisingly, Chimaev and Strickland haven’t held back in their pre-fight trash talk, with both threatening violence outside of the cage should it come down to it.
Allen isn’t convinced that Strickland would actually back up some of his more outlandish comments.
“Talk is talk,” Allen told Submission Radio. “Sean’s that kind of guy. I’d kill him in a press conference, though. I’d make him freak out for sure. For sure, it wouldn’t even be close. I’m just a guy, when you open up with words, I’m trying to kill you with those words. I’m trying to kill you. I’m trying to make you eat everything.
“But I’m also that guy, too, like we can talk all day, but as soon as we sign the fight, we know we’re going to fight, we know we’re fighting. There’s not much to be said at that point.”
Allen and Strickland previously fought at a UFC APEX event in November 2020. With COVID restrictions in full effect, there wasn’t much opportunity for the two to hype up their fight in public, so the bad blood was kept to a minimum outside of fight night, when Strickland defeated Allen by second-round knockout.
As part of Chimaev’s camp, Allen has seen firsthand how the champion’s team has reacted to Strickland’s threats, and he says everyone is on the same page when it comes to taking them with a grain of salt.
“We just laugh,” Allen said. “He just sounds so r*tarded. All he wants to do is get an emotional reaction out of people and it’s just like, alright bro, y’all are going to fight on Saturday, see if you’re talking all that shit then because you wasn’t talking that shit when y’all trained. You were screaming across the room to [coach] Eric [Nicksick] saying how he’s a bad coach for putting you with him. We don’t want to talk about that, do we? We don’t want to talk about guys that watched the sparring and the training saying you got tapped out or he made him quit or whatever. Nobody wants to talk about those things, so we just think of as a team, his coaches and everyone just was like, let him talk.
“I think it was more of trying to get through to the team, like it’s all talk. If you care about Khamzat, stay in your lane, don’t mess up this opportunity for Khamzat to go out there and handle it. Let Khamzat handle it. He signed the contract, Sean signed the contract, they’re going to fight, let him talk, let him do whatever he wants to do, let his antics do what it’s going to do, just walk away. Just laugh, walk away. If someone puts their hands on you that’s a different situation, but if it’s just talk, just let him talk. At the end of the day, Khamzat has 25 minutes to be in there with him and he’s going to do his best to make him feel it.”
At a scrum with reporters on Tuesday, Strickland was asked about Allen’s comments, and he didn’t hold back with his response.
“Brendan Allen, you are the definition of a c*nt,” Strickland said. “Let me tell you Brendan Allen why you’re such a dumb f*cking c*nt. To say you’re a dumb f*cking c*nt is a compliment. You are ranked 5. My boy [Edmen Shahbazyan is] about to beat you, Edmen’s about to beat you. You are ranked No. 5, you were talking about a title fight and you go and you train with the current champion and the whole world just watched him f*ck you up over and over and over and over and over again.
“All we know of your training camp is you’re getting your ass kicked by f*cking Chimaev. You will never fight for a belt. You are a f*cking r*tard. If you want to get some advice from me you f*cking r*tard, stop training with the champion and if you’re going to train with him, don’t let him beat the f*ck out of you for f*cking weeks at a time you f*cking idiot.”
Careful. Sean Strickland says it’s on Khamzat Chimaev if there are any outside-of-the-octagon shenanigans.
Or not. Chimaev wants Strickland to keep bringing it on the microphone.
Rumor. Max Holloway has heard the talk about a long-awaited rematch with Conor McGregor.
Trailer. If it doesn’t happen, you can always watch Holloway KO’ing McGregor in new UFC 6 game footage.
Legit? Alexander Volkov doesn’t think Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane at UFC White House is a bonafide heavyweight title fight.
Fighter vs. Writer. Matt Brown breaks down Carlos Prates’ beatdown of Jack Della Maddalena and the Brazilian chasing Brown’s UFC knockout record, plus a look ahead to UFC 328.
Severe MMA. Seán Sheehan and Ian O’Neill talk UFC Perth, including a bold comparison between Prates and the great Anderson Silva.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
The definitive fight week schedule.
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The trailer… for the countdown… for the fight.
Rafael Fiziev (13-5) vs. Manuel Torres (17-3); UFC Baku, June 27
Should already be booked for the title fight if you ask me.
What to do with Michael Morales?
With the ufc just booking ( not officially) Islam vs Garry for august and Prates just giving that masterclass during the weekend, who should Michael Morales fight next?? The only top ten welterweight available is Kamaru Usman. MVP maybe? Mike Malott # 11? Wonderboy sitting on # 15 in the rankings. He s an exciting new prospect that you just cant have him on the bench for so long. Who do you think he should fight next?
It’s only Wednesday and I’m reaching my limit on the Khamzat Chimaev-Sean Strickland trash talk cycle. And we still have media day, a press conference, and a ceremonial weigh-in to go.
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