The fighting community is no stranger to Sean Strickland’s unhinged personality. While Strickland often asserts confidence to beat his rivals, sometimes he also faces shocking realities. And to add more intrigue, it was one of Khamzat Chimaev’s teammates who made the American go through an adversity recently.

‘Tarzan’ is currently scheduled to face Anthony Hernandez at UFC Houston this weekend. Ahead of that, Strickland was training for the bout at UFC Performance Institute (PI). And that’s where he met two of Chimaev’s teammates, Baisangur Susurkaev and the 21-year-old Yusuf Esembaev. While there is no substantial proof, as per Susurkaev and Esembaev, what happened during that sparring session could serve as a reality check for ‘Tarzan’.

Yusuf Esembaev claims to submit ‘Tarzan’

“We were sparring with Sean Strickland,” said Yusuf Esembaev during a discussion on the JAXXON Podcast. “He asked me and Baisangur. Baisangur went with him three rounds, and he made him tired. And then he says, ‘Come on, you.’ And I went, took him down, and submitted him. Rear naked choke.”

This comes weeks after Sean Strickland claimed that he has the tools to beat Khamzat Chimaev. Now, interestingly, Chimaev is someone who has a very wrestling-heavy fighting style. As such, he seemingly mauls his opponents with that. Take the fight against Dricus du Plessis, for example, where ‘Borz’ controlled the bout for over 21 minutes.

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And Strickland relies more on standup exchanges even though he has a good grappling game. However, while he makes an assertion to beat Chimaev, ‘Tarzan’ is allegedly getting submitted by the UFC middleweight champion’s 21-year-old teammate, which may have given him a brutal reality check.

But then again, that’s something Strickland wouldn’t want to spend time worrying about. He now has an important fight coming up against Anthony Hernandez.

A victory for ‘Tarzan’ could certainly put him back in title contention and help reignite the division, especially given how he frequently questions Chimaev’s title reign.

Sean Strickland blames Khamzat Chimaev for stalling the division

Khamzat Chimaev surely takes time between his UFC fights. After two appearances in 2022, he has fought only once in each subsequent year. In 2023, it was against Kamaru Usman. Then a year later, Robert Whittaker stood in front of him. And last year, Chimaev defeated Dricus du Plessis to become the new UFC middleweight champion.

While Chimaev’s team plans for two fights in 2026, Sean Strickland is quite skeptical about it. To that end, he believes ‘Borz’ will be stalling the division.

“It’s kind of weird how the UFC deals with Chimaev,” said Strickland during an interview with ESPN MMA. “You brought a guy, and they fight once a year. He is just going to sit on that f**king belt and wait until they force him to fight.

Let’s just say Chimaev goes and fights Nassourdine [Imavov] in six months, and let’s just say Chimaev breaks his pinky like he normally does. Now he takes another year off. So it’s like you are off for two years.”

As we speak, there is no official information on who Chimaev is going to fight next. In the middleweight division, Nassourdine Imavov is surely the next challenger. But then again, there are also rumors about Chimaev’s potential move to the light heavyweight division.

That said, who do you think ‘Borz’ fights next? Let us know in the comments below!