Khamzat Chimaev doesn’t think the middleweight belt should have changed hands at UFC 297.
In the main event of UFC 297 on Saturday, Sean Strickland was looking to defend his middleweight title for the first time against Dricus Du Plessis. The fight was a pick’em on the betting odds, as people were torn between who would win, and the scrap ended up being very competitive as expected.
Ultimately, it was Dricus Du Plessis who became the new middleweight champion with a split decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 297. However, middleweight contender Khamzat Chimaev says he believes Strickland won the fight.
“I expected the fight to be like that, nothing special. I think 50-50, could go either way. For me, Strickland won the fight, but it was a close fight. But nothing special, nothing that made me think these guys are somebody. Both have a lot of things (they need to work on). I see I can finish them both, I go to a fight, I always try to finish somebody. I didn’t see one of them going crazy trying to finish. They were both going for five rounds,” Chimaev said to ESPN.
Chimaev believes Strickland won the first two rounds and the fifth to get the win. However, he knows it was a close fight and could have gone either way.
Although Khamzat Chimaev thought Sean Strickland should have won, he now turns his attention to Dricus Du Plessis, as he believes he will get the next title shot.
“All these guys have fought each other, and only me is undefeated, undisputed. They promised me, after the Usman fight, I will for sure fight for the title. I won that fight, so I don’t know what’s going on. I heard Dana White say, ‘I don’t think Khamzat is next for the title.’ That’s bullshit, man. If you promise me something, you have to answer it.”
Not only does Chimaev think he should get the next title shot, but he also revealed he’s already reached out to the UFC to ask for the title fight to take place at UFC 300.
“In my mind, it should be me. I asked Hunter (Campbell) to let me fight at UFC 300. We’ll see what they say,” Chimaev added
As of right now, the UFC hasn’t revealed what will be next for Dricus Du Plessis. Khamzat Chimaev, however, makes it clear he should be getting the next middleweight title shot.
Chimaev is currently 13-0 as a pro and coming off a decision win over Kamaru Usman in his return to middleweight.
