The UFC middleweight division has a new king, and the drama leading up to the coronation was as intense as the fight itself. Sean Strickland reclaimed the 185-pound throne at UFC 328, but the real story might have been what happened on the scales—and the staggering weight cut that followed.
At Friday's weigh-ins, Khamzat Chimaev was the last man to step on the scale. Officials announced he made weight, but the MMA community was quick to dissect the video, with many questioning the speed of the commission's read in Newark, New Jersey. Chimaev looked visibly drained, sparking immediate speculation about just how much he had to shed to make the limit.
That speculation turned into a jaw-dropping revelation after the fight. Chimaev's brother claimed the former champion initially accepted a fight with Jiri Prochazka for the vacant light heavyweight title—a 205-pound bout—before the UFC pivoted to the Strickland matchup. The result? A reported 46-pound weight cut to get down to 185. For context, that's like dropping the weight of a small child in a matter of days.
Strickland's head coach, Eric Nicksick, didn't mince words when asked about the weigh-in drama and the post-fight chatter. For him, the issue wasn't about a potential miss—it was about the responsibility that comes with the belt.
"Let's start with this: He's the 185-pound champ. That's your division, right? So it's either vacate or defend, simple as that," Nicksick told MMA Fighting. "If you're vacating the belt and moving up in weight, then by all means. But as far as I'm concerned, you're the 185-pound champ. You have a duty to defend that belt, and you have a duty to be able to make the weight."
Nicksick then revealed the cold, hard reality of fight economics: "The whole weight situation—it's not like, 'Oh, he didn't make the weight,' and this and that. People forget, I don't know what Khamzat was getting paid, but that's 20 or 30 percent—that's a big fine. That money goes into Sean's pocket. That's all we cared about: 'Yo, we want that fine money. We want that tax, baby.' Other than that, it is what it is."
Strickland himself believed—both before and after the fight—that Chimaev didn't actually make weight. But anyone who knows the new champion knows that wouldn't have changed a thing. "We were going to fight regardless," Strickland said, and true to form, he stepped into the Octagon and walked out with the belt. Whether Chimaev's extreme weight cut played a role in the outcome is a question only the fighters can answer—but one thing is certain: the middleweight division just got a whole lot more interesting.