A fiery middleweight rivalry tops this Saturday’s UFC 328 in New Jersey, and on Thursday, Sean Strickland and champ Khamzat Chimaev were expected to be on hand for the event’s pre-fight press conference.
No doubt the UFC had extra security measures in place for this one, given Strickland taunting Chimaev over being a “terrorist” due to his ties to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov. Not to mention threatening to shoot the champ and his team should he be jumped outside of the cage ahead of the fight.
Chimaev, perhaps more than expected, has taken a reserved role, essentially called Strickland a clown. Still, fireworks would not be unexpected during Thursday’s press conference.
A very promising flyweight title fight serves as the night’s co-main event, meanwhile, and represents the first time two fighters born in the 2000s will compete for the UFC title. That bout has champ Joshua Van taking on Japanese challenger Tatsuro Taira.
The full UFC 328 card is below, catch the pre-fight press conference above starting at 5PM ET, 3PM PT.
- Khamzat Chimaev (c) vs. Sean Strickland – for the UFC middleweight championship
- Joshua Van (c) vs. Tatsuro Taira – for the UFC flyweight championship
- Alexander Volkov vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
- Sean Brady vs. Joaquin Buckley
- King Green vs. Jeremy Stephens
- Ateba Gautier vs. Osman Diaz
- Joel Álvarez vs. Yaroslav Amosov
- Grant Dawson vs. Mateusz Rębecki
- Jim Miller vs. Jared Gordon
- Roman Kopylov vs. Marco Tulio
- Pat Sabatini vs. William Gomis
- Baisangur Susurkaev vs. Djorden Santos
- Clayton Carpenter vs. Jose Ochoa