UFC’s Khamzat Chimaev recently went off on former middleweight champion Sean Strickland, accusing him of pretending to be a “macho man” despite being scared of Chimaev in training.
In an interview, Chimaev recounted his past training sessions with Strickland, claiming that Strickland asked his coach to tell Chimaev to “go easy” on him after getting dominated during sparring.
“He’s like, he trying to like he said, I’m man, I am. Trying to be against the gay thing to be the macho man. You’re not macho man. When I find you hard, you went to your coach and said, Please tell the guy go easy. I’ll go, man,” Chimaev said.
Chimaev slammed Strickland as a fake for trying to cultivate a tough, homophobic image despite not actually being able to back it up in the gym. He said Strickland’s persona is all an act.
“We talked about I beat you. I was running for me. I’ve been all month. I visited him gym. Nobody never comes to my gym. I’m trying to beat me up, you know? Did you see anyone? Did you heard anyone coming to my gym and trying to beat me up? I went to all these guys. I went to all the gyms. I’ve been everywhere. I’m not scared anyone. So I’m beat up all of them I never saw and not remember,” Chimaev said.
Chimaev and Strickland have traded verbal barbs over the past year, but this latest rant from Chimaev exposes Strickland’s “macho man” behavior as fraudulent, according to Chechen fighter.