After the win, the brash Strickland spoke with fellow former champion Michael Bisping and called out the current champion Khamzat Chimaev.
“Chimaev is probably coming off the bench. I’d like to take out that little Chechen whore,” Strickland said of the hopes for his next challenge. “You never know with him. With that guy you never know, but that’s what I want.”
Strickland’s straightforward, no-nonsense attitude suggests he is ready to test his skills against the undefeated champion.
The call didn’t stop inside the octagon.
“I forced him to stop training,” Strickland said during the post-fight media bash in Houston. ‘Witnesses in the audience, where is it? [Strickland’s coach] Erik [Nicksick] bee? I made him stop. No, we were doing positional wrestling… ‘Okay, start on my back’ and I was like, in the first round, I let him fucking choke me because no one cares.”
The verbal assault on the current 185-pound kingpin continued.
“Let me tell you about this little bitch,” Strickland said. “I’ll tell you. When I walk into a gym, you think I’m going to find the littlest, weakest guy, I say, ‘Let’s spar?’ I’m going to look for the biggest, baddest motherfucker and I’m going to say, ‘Hey, I want to spar you.’ Every time Chimaev walked into the gym, he would pick the smallest professional from the lowest level and say, “But oh, he looks like my opponent.” … He would choose the smallest man. Chimaev’s bully.
“And if you notice what he does in a division, he just runs away and hides. Now I want to go to 205 and fight damn Jiri [Prochazka]who isn’t even the damn champion. You just run and hide. You did it when you trained with us, and you’re doing it in the damn division.
Chimaev, who was not present at the event, responded on social media, referring back to his dominant victory over former champion Dricus du Plessis.
“Habibi, calm down, I destroyed the man who defeated you twice 🤫
American bitch 😂”
Habibi calm down, I destroyed the man who defeated you twice 🤫
American bitch 😂— Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) February 22, 2026
If this fight were to happen, it would be a stylistic clash between two contrasting approaches to MMA. Strickland’s striking and pressing against Chimaev’s grappling and grappling would create a compelling dynamic in the octagon.
#Sean #Strickland #calls #Khamzat #Chimaev #champion #answers