In the confrontation between Khamzat Chimaev and Kamaru Usman, which will determine his next opponent, the American sees the Chechen fighter as the clear favorite.
“Usman is moving up to middleweight without a training camp and is only taking this fight because of the check,” Strickland said in a video posted on his Youtube channel. “They said, ‘Hey Usman, here’s a couple million dollars if you take the fight,’ and Usman said, ‘It’s an offer I can’t refuse – I’ll do it.’ Usman’s in a win-win situation either way.”
“So we have Chimaev, who has prepared long and hard for a middleweight fight, and Usman, who accepted the fight just because of the check. To me, this fight is complete nonsense. They just needed to fill the vacated spot, so I’m betting on Chimaev.”
For the same reason, Strickland doesn’t believe Alexander Volkanovski, who took the fight with Islam Makhachev on short notice, can take the UFC lightweight championship belt away from the Russian.
“Again, they pulled Volkanovski off the couch. I’m glad they saved the card, but I’ll always bet on a guy who’s had a full training camp because we’re talking about world-class fighters. I’d like to see them rematch after both have had full camps. Wolf will make good money, probably get a couple million too, maybe more. So, I’m betting on Chimaev and Makhachev, but I’ll be rooting for whoever comes out to fight without a training camp”
As a reminder, Kamaru Usman and Alex Volkanovski took the vacated spots on the card of the numbered event after Brazilians Paulo Costa and Charles Oliveira dropped out of their scheduled fights. Costa contracted staphylococcus aureus during training, while Oliveira suffered a serious dissection in his last training session just before flying out for the fight.