It will indeed be Sean Strickland who gets first crack at UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev. That title bout was one of many revealed by UFC CEO Dana White on Thursday as the promotion rolled out every card up to UFC Freedom 250, the White House card scheduled for June 14. The middleweights will be the main event of UFC 328, scheduled for May 9 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
It will be Chimaev’s first title defense, nearly nine months after winning the belt against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 in August.
The two candidates for the title challenge were Strickland and Nassourdine Imavov. The latter is riding a five-fight win streak, but lost to Strickland in 2023. Strickland, meanwhile, is coming off an impressive win over Anthony Hernandez, which seemed to be at the front of White’s mind:
“The main event, the fight people have been waiting for for a long time. Strickland looked incredible in his last performance. How much security do you think we’re going to need for Chimaev?”
This will be Strickland’s fourth UFC title fight. He won the belt with an upset win over Israel Adesanya, but lost it one fight later to du Plessis and failed to reclaim it when given a rematch at UFC 312 last year.
There is no shortage of bad blood between Chimaev and Strickland, going back to their time sparring together.
White also provided the full card for UFC 327, which will feature Dominick Reyes vs. Johnny Walker in the co-main event.
As for the rest of the fights cards, here are the events that were rolled out and their main events:
– April 11 – UFC 327: Jiří Procházka vs. Carlos Ulberg – April 18 – UFC Winnipeg: Gilbert Burns vs. Mike Malott – April 25 – UFC Apex: Aljamain Sterling vs. Youssef Zalal – May 2 – UFC Perth: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Carlos Prates – May 9 – UFC 328: Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland – May 16 – UFC Apex: Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael Costa – May 30 – UFC Macau: Song Yadong vs. Deiveson Figueiredo – June 6 – UFC Apex: Belal Muhammad vs. Gabriel Bonfim – June 14 – UFC Freedom 250: Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje
