“Be nice. Understand, you’re better than most—you’re better than everybody. Don’t hurt people,”, is kind of bizarre coming from Sean Strickland, but that just speaks to the danger, dominance, and relentlessness of Khamzat Chimaev. Basically, ‘Tarzan’ asked ‘Borz’ to calm himself down during training, and given that Strickland himself engages in hard sparring, you can only imagine what the Chechen put team Xtreme Couture through. This was back in 2022 when there was a healthy amount of respect between Strickland and Chimaev. Cut to the present day and Strickland’s been mouthing off on Chimaev with every opportunity he gets. Recently, he revealed an aspect of their training together that painted Khamzat Chimaev as a proper gym bully.

While having a conversation with Daniel Cormier on his YouTube handle, Sean Strickland was asked about those comments to ‘Borz’ back when they were training partners. According to Strickland, he didn’t mean what he said to the Chechen middleweight. “So Chimaev would come to the gym, and there was a clip of me being sarcastic, like, “Oh, you’re the best, you’re the best.” He would just go and ragdoll low-level pros,” said ‘Tarzan’ to DC.

He further added, “Dude, I mean, there’s one guy who’s 50-55, and Chimaev was like, “Oh, he kind of has the same style and looks like my opponent.” I’m like, “Yeah, dude, but he’s had three fights. Stop beating the [__] out of this guy. There are so many guys in the gym you can fight. Stop beating this guy up. Chimaev is just a bully, man. And I mean, even the crypto scam—history does not lie. If you have an open, honest opinion on Chimaev, you’re looking at a man that lacks all dignity.”

Of course, Strickland then talked about Chimaev’s ties to the Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov. And Khamzat Chimaev’s response to all of this. Just X posts with emojis. Recently, ‘Borz’ became the second fighter to attack Sean Strickland about his difficult childhood in response to ‘Tarzan’ constantly attacking him during the UFC 312 fight week. But what would an actual fight between the two look like? Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping gave us his take.

 Michael Bisping believes that Sean Strickland can give a hard fight to Khamzat Chimaev

At one point, Sean Strickland was touted as the American Michael Bisping, which is brash, and often unfiltered takes. It’s no surprise that Bisping and Strickland get along. Recalling reports of Khamzat Chimaev winning the grappling exchanges in sparring against ‘Tarzan’, Michael Bisping claimed to Submission Radio that the outcome in the Octagon would be far different than their exchanges in training.

“We’ve heard stories that, apparently, when they trained, someone told me the other day that Khamzat had his way, and he was choking him out, tapping him out, and stuff like that. But the training room is one thing; what happens in a fight is very different,” ‘The Count’ said.

He further added, “For example, Quinton Rampage’ Jackson. I used to train with him. In the gym, he wasn’t exactly a world-beater because he didn’t care. He didn’t have an ego, he wasn’t getting paid, and he wasn’t actually competing in the gym. But under the bright lights, when it mattered, that man was a ridiculously talented fighter. So, you can’t put too much stock into training.”

Michael Bisping believes that Khamzat Chimaev might overpower the former middleweight champion but ascertains that Strickland will give ‘Borz’ a run for his money. What are your thoughts on their fight? Do you think Sean Strickland will be able to defeat Khamzat Chimaev? State your thoughts in the comments below.