Former middleweight champion Sean Strickland believes you can make more money in the UFC middleweight division by not fighting for the title due to current titleholder Khamzat Chimaev’s inactivity.
“It’s kind of weird what the UFC did with Chimaev. You brought a guy in that fights once a year who’s like Madonna who probably gets like, you know, I mean, how much money does that dictator give him under the table? Like, the guy doesn’t need to fight dude. He’s best friends with a f*cking warlord. He doesn’t need to f*cking fight. Dude gets gifted G Wagons,” Strickland told ESPN MMA.
“You have somebody who like, he’s just going to sit on that f*cking belt and wait and wait until they force him to fight,” Strickland continued. “The middleweight division, from a pure money perspective, you would make more money not fighting for the belt than you would fighting for the belt, right?
“Say Chimaev goes and fights Nassourdine [Imavov] in six months. Well, let’s say Chimaev springs his f*cking pinky like he normally does. Now he takes another year off. So, it’s like you’re off for two years where it’s like the belt isn’t even like, it’s not even in my brain anymore. I don’t think about it. Like I’ll make significantly more money just fighting.”
Strickland’s criticism of Chimaev’s inactivity isn’t unfounded. “Borz” has only fought once a year for the last three years. He competed twice in 2022 after making the walk to the octagon once in 2021.
“It doesn’t make sense to me. We’re in here to make money and I’ll make significantly more money not fighting for a belt, or waiting for Chimaev’s pinky to feel better,” said the former champion. “It’s like every time this guy fights he has a mysterious injury. Why wait?