Khamzat Chimaev goes for his first defense of the UFC middleweight championship when he takes on former titleholder Sean Strickland in the main event at UFC 328 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday.
Chimaev, who beat Dricus du Plessis to claim the belt at UFC 319 last August, is unbeaten in professional MMA and is ESPN’s No. 5-ranked pound-for-pound fighter. Each of his past three victories has come over a former UFC champion (Kamaru Usman, Robert Whittaker and Du Plessis).
Strickland, No. 4 in ESPN’s middleweight rankings, enters the fight following a third-round TKO win over Anthony Hernandez in February. This will be his fourth middleweight championship fight. He beat Israel Adesanya to earn the belt at UFC 293 in September 2023, then lost his next two title fights to Du Plessis in 2024 and 2025.
A panel of three former UFC fighters offers picks and insight for the UFC 328 main event.
Middleweight title fight
ExpertPickMethodDustin Poirier
MMA analyst
ChimaevDecisionDin Thomas
MMA coach
StricklandDecisionMichael Chiesa
MMA analyst
ChimaevDecision
Expert takes
I’m pretty confident Khamzat gets it done against Sean. I don’t think Sean can stop Chimaev’s takedowns; nobody else has. Sean has decent takedown defense, but this is different. Sean’s footwork is not the best, and it needs to be great to keep Khamzat guessing. And to give himself a chance, he needs to stay off the fence by any means necessary. Sean is very heavy on the front foot. Those jabs and teep kicks are effective, but they’re not devastating enough to change a fight. — Dustin Poirier
I hate picking against Russian fighters — they always think I’m mad at them — but I’m going to say Sean gets the win here. Sean is better than his performance shows sometimes, and this a big opportunity in a fight that he called for. I think he can actually stop Khamzat’s wrestling.
Other Khamzat opponents haven’t been good at getting back up. Sean is a better defensive grappler than Dricus du Plessis, whom Khamzat beat to claim the title, and Strickland understands that the more he makes Khamzat take him down, the more it’s going to wear Khamzat out. Sean’s jabs and front kicks should stop some of the takedowns as well. Khamzat is a fantastic fighter, but in recent fights, he has shown that he’s very beatable. — Din Thomas
We’re going to see Sean tested in an area of his game we really haven’t before. MMA fans respect Strickland’s wrestling, but they’re going off stories they’ve heard from the gym. We hear all the time, “Sean is hard to take down,” but when have we seen it in his fights? Khamzat will test his wrestling, and I think Sean will pass that test. Chimaev will get Strickland down — not with ease, but he’ll get Sean down. This matchup will get interesting in the later rounds, as it gets harder to take Sean down and he jumps back up once he is down. But ultimately, I think Khamzat will get the win — probably three rounds to two. Decisive, but not a shutout. — Michael Chiesa
