Sean Strickland received UFC’s middleweight championship for the second time in his profession on Saturday evening, defeating Khamzat Chimaev by way of break up resolution in UFC 328.
Strickland received two scorecards 48-47 whereas Chimaev took the opposite scorecard at 48-47 in entrance of a crowd of 17,783 followers on the Prudential Middle in Newark, New Jersey.
It was Chimaev’s first skilled defeat after 16 bouts.
American Strickland, the second former middleweight to regain the title, mimed placing the belt round his waist after the fifth spherical ended to wrap a struggle the place neither fighter ever appeared in severe hazard. He had assist along with his shiny new vogue accent when Chimaev did the honours for him contained in the cage.
It was an attritional bout that by no means rose to the degrees of the bad-tempered build-up.
The fighters tapped gloves to begin the struggle and the prefight hostilities by no means spilled over into the cage.
The 35-year-old Strickland first received the 185-pound belt in September 2023 and misplaced it in his first title defence the next January, to Dricus du Plessis.
