UFC 328 is in the books, and Sean Strickland did it again!
On Saturday, Strickland etched another impressive upset win into his resumé, reclaiming the middleweight title with a split decision victory over Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328.
Plus, in the co-main event, Joshua Van scored his first successful title defense, stopping Tatsuro Taira in the fifth round of their flyweight title fight, Sean Brady dummied Joaquin Buckley, and more. So, let’s dive into all the biggest storylines coming out of UFC 328.
1. What’s your blurb review of UFC 328?
Heck: A step or two below the hype, but a solid night with a super weird main event and a super fun co-main. And the UFC’s way-too-many commercials era is getting out of hand.
Lee: Which will we remember more fondly? The Machida Era or The Chimaev Era?
Meshew: Oops! Sean did it again.
Martin: Did Sean Strickland just become a superstar for the UFC? I think so.
2. What exactly happened in that main event between Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev?
Heck: Beats the hell out of me, but Sean Strickland is the middleweight champion once again.
I’ve gone back and watched the fight again, and two things remain the same from my live watch: I scored it for Chimaev, but it’s certainly not a robbery, as Round 3 was very close. The other is that I’m just flat-out puzzled by Chimaev’s approach to all of it — from the clearly horrible weight cut, to his in-fight strategy, to pulling guard, and getting into a mid-range kickboxing match with Strickland. Let me be clear, credit to Strickland for getting out of that first round because he was in some hairy spots, but Chimaev — especially on the re-watch — fought like a guy who knew he was leaving the weight class. He knew Strickland wouldn’t be able to finish him, and seemed quite content losing the belt in a competitive decision to a guy he likes.
And the last thing: Once again, we warned you that this was all a work, and don’t be surprised when that revelation comes to pass. I just thought we’d get it 30 minutes after it was made perfectly clear.
All week, I said that Chimaev was going to bulldoze right through Strickland, tackling him immediately and dominating on the floor; and for five minutes, I looked like a genius. Then things flew off the rails.
After the first round, where Chimaev barely got hit and didn’t even have to work that hard, “Borz” appeared to be completely gassed, pulling guard in the second round. From there, he turned into K-1 Khamzat, spending most of the rest of the fight not even trying to shoot takedowns. And while he held his own on the feet, that ultimately cost him the title as Strickland’s high-volume jabbing won him the fight on two of the judges’ scorecards.
And that, to me, is the biggest story of this weekend. Everything about Chimaev’s performance was weird, but man, Sean Strickland sure does have a knack for this sort of thing, huh?
Strickland now joins a list of illustrious individuals who have won a title more than once, which is pretty wild. And on top of that, the way he did it is super impressive. Both wins were huge upsets, and they came against as different of opponents as possible. Strickland beat the best striker of this generation, Israel Adesanya, and then beat the best grappler of this generation, Chimaev. That doesn’t make him the GOAT or anything, but it is very weird and cool, and basically assures him of going into the Hall of Fame one day.
Someone called him the Eli Manning of MMA, and honestly, that feels right. Who saw this coming from the guy who got KOed by Zaleski dos Santos?
Martin: Sean Strickland stared down the boogeyman, and Khamzat Chimaev couldn’t bully him.
Obviously, the UFC 328 main event had a lot more layers to it than that, but after a suffocating opening round where Chimaev took Strickland down with relative ease and then dominated him on the ground for the better part of five minutes, he just didn’t have much left in the tank. That sounds crazy considering so much of the training footage for Chimaev leading up to this fight was working on strength and conditioning with his team out in California, but he burned through his reserves quicker than Brian O’Conner trying to beat Dominic Toretto in a street race.
To his credit, Chimaev found a second wind and looked pretty good on the feet, but his wrestling largely disappeared for the rest of the fight, and let’s not kid ourselves, that’s his best weapon. And truth be told, Strickland weirdly had an off night as well because his output wasn’t quite as much as usual, and he threw almost no kicks up the middle, which is one of his signature attacks. But Strickland just stayed busier, landed better strikes overall, and made Chimaev not only look human but absolutely beatable.
Lee: First, hats off to Strickland, a truly objectionable human being who is pretty damn good at winning MMA fights. Whatever criticisms you have of Chimaev’s performance, more of the credit has to go to Strickland for weathering the storm early and eventually forcing Chimaev to fight his fight. From the moment Strickland battered Anthony Hernandez, and another title shot became a real possibility, I thought Strickland had a chance of being the one to defeat Chimaev based on his inimitable and frustrating style. And he pulled it off.
As for Chimaev, well, I’m not a doctor, but if the rumors are true that he cut north of 40 pounds for this title fight, I don’t think that helped him. He’s got to get his body and head right if he plans to be champion again, regardless of what division he decides on.
3. Is Joshua Van the best Flyweight in the world?
Heck: No, but that literally could change in a few months, and the more important thing is that Van is the shiny gold thing that puts a lot of people on his side.
Van put on a sick fight with Tatsuro Taira. He went out there and beat the brakes off of him when he wasn’t trying to get back to his feet. But my biggest takeaway is that I can’t freaking wait for Van vs. Pantoja 2. It’s now one of the top-three fights I can’t wait to watch. Why? Because even though Taira got stopped (I still didn’t love the stoppage, but not the worst I’ve ever seen, certainly), the talented Japanese fighter showed me that Pantoja can have a lot of success against Van. Not only that, Pantoja isn’t going to end up back on his feet after having top control and putting his hands and arms down to his shoelaces to allow Van to punch him as hard as he could in the face at will.
I still lean Pantoja as the best 125er because he has earned that right to hold that spot until it is proven without a shadow of a doubt that he isn’t. I have too many questions to straight pull that trigger. Get those two guys in the cage and let’s find out.
Martin: Almost, but he needs to settle things with Alexandre Pantoja before he can officially wear that crown.
Van looked amazing on Saturday night, and while he did spend a lot of time on the ground with a world-class grappler like Taira on top of him, he never panicked, never came close to being finished, and that is the perfect preparation for somebody like Pantoja. On the feet, Van just dismantled Taira with a variety of strikes that showed that he’s way more than just a really good boxer with blinding speed and power.
Van defended his title with a win, and that should cement him as champion, but to actually call himself the best in the world, he needs to get through that Pantoja rematch. Before losing the title due to a freak injury, Pantoja looked like he was cruising towards a status as the No. 2 greatest flyweight of all time behind Demetrious Johnson.
Assuming Pantoja is healthy again and ready to fight, UFC needs to give Van plenty of time to rest and recover following his win on Saturday and then book that rematch immediately. That will settle the score once and for all about the best of the best at 125 pounds.
Lee: This is so unfair, but yeah, as long as there’s a chance Pantoja comes back within the next six months or so, it’s still his ranking to lose.
Van might be the best flyweight in the world. He might have just beaten the second-best guy in the world for all we know, as neither Van nor Taira has had the chance (I mean, really had the chance) to have a proper go with Pantoja. But Pantoja deserves the benefit of the doubt with the work he’s done and the names he’s beaten, and nobody would be shocked if he comes back strong from his arm injury.
He’s on the clock, though, and if his comeback timetable gets pushed into 2027, then I’ll be happy to give Van his cruelly delayed flowers.
Meshew: That depends on your definition of “best,” but honestly, I might be willing to give it to him under any definition.
Van is the justifiable flyweight champion because his win over Pantoja was legitimate. Weird, but legitimate. He did nothing wrong; you can’t blame him for it. He’s the legit champion. But we can all acknowledge that the fight didn’t necessarily reveal who the best guy is, and so they need to square things up, for real. And at this stage of things, I’m liking Van’s chances to win a no-asterisk fight against Pants, too.
Van is still just 24 years old, and he’s rapidly improving in each fight. Taira had a ton of success early against the champion, but Van was never deterred and eventually put a stamp on it (questionable stoppage aside). I love Pantoja and believe he’s the second-greatest flyweight ever, but he’s 36 and coming off a tough injury. At the peak of his powers, I’d favor Pantoja over this version of Van, but he’s not at his peak anymore, and by the time they fight, Van may well have leveled up yet again.
The fighting pride of Myanmar holds the top spot now.
4. Aside from the title fights, who was the big winner at UFC 328?
Heck: Yaroslav Amosov is FINALLY getting the respect he deserves as he was, unequivocally, the guy who had the best performance at UFC 328.
What that man did to Joel Alvarez was incredibly impressive. The only other guy to obliterate Alvarez is Arman Tsarukyan, and Arman is pretty good at this fist-fighting thing. This, to me, was one of the toughest fights to call on the card, and Amosov made me look foolish. The belly-to-back suplex into the arm-triangle was a thing of beauty. Shout out to the UFC for giving the best dude on the card a well-earned bonus, and now reward him with a highly-ranked guy.
Amosov vs. Sean Brady. Book it.
Martin: It’s Jim “F*cking” Miller, and I won’t hear otherwise.
At 42, Miller is already defying the odds with a 4-2 record in his past six fights while competing in arguably the deepest, nastiest division in the sport. But Saturday night was so much more for Miller than just winning a fight. He was coming back from an injury — something he’s avoided for the vast majority of his career — and there’s no way to measure the emotional turmoil he was facing after his son just went through a battle with cancer.
Miller looked great and needed less than five minutes to tap out Jared Gordon for UFC win No. 28 (an all-time record), which was UFC fight No. 47 (also an all-time record). Afterwards, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that the win was actually the final fight on Miller’s contract, so the UFC immediately inked him to a new five-fight deal that allows him to reach his ultimate goal — 50 fights in the UFC.
Oh, and he also earned the $100,000 bonus for Performance of the Night. The wins just keep stacking up for Miller!
Lee: Sean Brady, you are still a welterweight title hopeful. For now.
After getting smoked by Michael Morales at UFC 322, Brady was damn near shoved out of the contender circle, just hanging in there by his toes. He needed to win Saturday against Joaquin Buckley, an opponent not in a dissimilar situation. Plus, with a big card coming up in Brady’s hometown of Philadelphia in August, the timing was perfect for him to show that he deserves to land a marquee opponent on that card.
Brady didn’t mess around Saturday, going to his wrestling early and often against Buckley, who had been training with Kamaru Usman ahead of this fight for all the good that did. Find a weakness and exploit it is one of the most basic ways to approach a fight, and Brady kept things as simple as possible. Once a blue-chip prospect, Brady is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, and he can take comfort in knowing the door hasn’t shut on him fighting for a UFC title before it’s all said and done.
Meshew: King Green! Did he get his $100,000 bonus? No! He got something even better: Shorts!
Hey, who wants to feed their family when you can have the rarest of gifts? Because, like knives, we all know that money can’t buy shorts.
5. Who was the biggest loser at UFC 328?
Heck: Waldo Cortes-Acosta is my pick, because his road to a heavyweight title shot just went from a couple of 10K’s to three ultra-marathons.
“Salsa Boy” lost a close, but not spectacularly fun fight to Alexander Volkov. WCA tried to lure Volkov into a brawl, but the veteran refused, and Cortes-Acosta takes a big step back in a division that is already an absolute mess. The winner of that fight more than deserved a shot to fight for the heavyweight title, and even with Volkov winning — and having a better case in most eyes than Ciryl Gane to be fighting for a title fight now — Volkov is fighting either Josh Hokit or, in a rematch, Derrick Lewis. He’s not getting a title fight next, and even if he beats Hokit or Lewis, he still may need another win. It’s very dumb that’s the case, but this is the TKO-ified version of the UFC that we are a part of.
Martin: It’s not like Khamzat Chimaev hadn’t looked human before losing at UFC 328, but he previously always found a way to win. That came to an end with his split decision loss to Sean Strickland, and now he’s exploring a move up to another weight class as he continues to pack on the pounds.
But here’s the thing: The way people talked about Chimaev, it felt like he might finish his career with an undefeated record and challenge greats like Jon Jones or Khabib Nurmagomedov for the most impressive UFC careers in history. That’s obviously not going to happen now, and while a lot of fighters feel like a pressure valve gets released after losing for the first time, Chimaev appeared almost invincible, especially through his first couple of fights at middleweight.
But instead, Chimaev’s conditioning failed him after what looked like a really rough weight cut, and you can’t help but wonder if this move up to 205 pounds is actually going to pay off the way he wants. Yes, it’s a much shallower division and everybody who spends time with Chimaev believes he’s going to be a force of nature at light heavyweight, but that 20-pound jump between divisions isn’t easy. Past middleweight champions have tried and failed with that same move, so now it’s Chimaev’s turn to see if he can figure it out. Maybe he can, but for the first time in a long while, we have questions about his ceiling, and that absolutely was not the case prior to Saturday night.
Meshew: Honestly, I think the answer is Chimaev, because this feels like the sort of loss feels like it might have far-reaching implications for his career, but I’m going to go one step further and name the Chimaev fight team as a whole, because his protege, Baisangur Susurkaev AKA Jimmy Sus, is also leaving New Jersey with substantially less aura, and he even won his fight.
As Damon noted, this is not the first time Chimaev looked human, but this feels like the one that makes fans and future opponents re-evaluate how good he actually is. Chimaev is certainly a world-class, championship-level fighter, but it seems like he’s probably not the sort of fighter who puts together a sustained title reign, now. He’s too limited, too mercurial, and not focused enough against intense opposition to consistently win on the margins. Maybe he improves, but this might just be where he’s at: the best in the world on a good day, but he won’t always have good days, especially as his opposition gets smarter.
Similarly, Susurkaev entered the UFC with a ton of hype, and while he keeps getting finishes, he also keeps lowering the bar of expectations surrounding him with every fight. Susurkaev seems to have the arrogant self-assurance of Chimaev, without his generational talent, and it’s only a matter of time before he gets checked like Chimaev did on Saturday.
Lee: Jeremy Stephens, in all sincerity, we salute you.
With his loss to King Green, Stephens became the first fighter ever to 20 UFC losses, a record that would be untouchable were it not for the ever-present Jim Miller (couldn’t even let someone else have this one, eh Big Jim?). But the way Stephens didn’t is definitely unique. While Miller has been a UFC stalwart since 2008, Stephens actually briefly left in 2022 and has had to come back to add to his L column.
We still don’t know why Stephens and the UFC partnered up again, but anyone who keeps stepping back into the octagon hoping to find success despite all evidence to the contrary (Stephens has not won a UFC fight since 2018) deserves our respect.
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