Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Olympics
Football
Netball
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Full Noise by SN
The Live Sport Bible is here!UFC 328: Strickland defeats Chimaev by split decision to regain middleweight belt
Reuters • May 10th, 2026 5:50 pm
Sean Strickland claimed the UFC middleweight title, defeating Khamzat Chimaev | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
American Sean Strickland has survived an attritional five-round battle against Khamzat Chimaev to earn a razor-thin victory and regain the UFC middleweight title at UFC 328.
Strickland's (31-7 MMA) split decision win - 47-48, 48-47, 48-47 - in New Jersey on Saturday (Sunday NZ time) handed heavily-favoured Chechen Chimaev (15-1 MMA) his first loss.
UFC beefed up security at hotels, public events and around the cage for this event following one of the more loathsome displays - specifically from Strickland - of trash talk in recent fight history. Strickland had threatened to shoot Chimaev and labelled him a terrorist.
Chimaev, who fights under the United Arab Emirates banner, had countered by saying he would "take off" Strickland's head.
The pre-fight hostilities never spilled over into the cage and the fighters embraced afterwards.
In an expletive-laden victory speech in the octagon, Strickland paid tribute to his opponent, saying he had gone too far in the build-up to the fight.
"I want to tell you guys, my fans, I f...ing love you guys. I would not be where I am today without you guys, my Christian fans, my Muslim fans, my white fans, my Black friends, my brown fans," he said after regaining the crown he lost to South African Dricus du Plessis in February 2025.
We are all Americans, and this is the f...ing dream."
The raucous home crowd's chants of "USA!" were quickly stifled when the champion took the American to the mat early in the first round and dominated him.
Strickland turned the tables in the second round, thwarting takedown attempts and spending much of the frame in top position before using his superior boxing in the third to press home his advantage, despite suffering a suspected broken nose.
Despite his overpowering wrestling advantage, Chimaev continued to stand and trade blows for much of the fourth round before returning to his grappling base, taking his opponent back to the mat in the final minute of the frame, but Strickland utilised his jab and movement to do just enough to convince two of the three judges to award him the pivotal fifth round.
In the co-main event, Myanmar-born Joshua Van came storming back to defeat Tatsuro Taira and retain the flyweight title, surviving his Japanese opponent's fearsome grappling attack to win by TKO in the fifth round.
The 24-year-old Van sent Taira crashing to the canvas with a thunderous right hand at the end of the second round, and the two engaged in a tremendous back-and-fourth bout until Van ended it one minute and 32 seconds into the final round with an unanswered barrage of blows.
Subscribe to Sport Nation's weekly combat sports podcast Fight Club on Spotify.
Michelle Montague on life in America's most unhinged state | Fight Club
