Daniel Cormier watched Sean Strickland shock Khamzat Chimaev from octagon side at UFC 328, and his read was simple after the belt changed hands. Chimaev did not collapse. Strickland fought the smarter, cleaner fight and used his jab, defense, and scrambling to take back the UFC middleweight title.
Strickland’s split-decision win has already turned into one of the loudest scorecard debates of the year, with Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo scoring UFC 328 for Chimaev while Dricus Du Plessis said Strickland was built for that matchup. Cormier leaned toward the official result, pointing to the jab, strike totals, and the fact that octagon control is not supposed to decide rounds by itself anymore.
“Obviously, the night belongs to the new champion, Sean Strickland,” Cormier said. “Goes in there against the unbeatable Khamzat Chimaev and he gets the job done.”
Cormier said Chimaev entered as a massive favorite because of what he had already shown inside the cage.
“Khamzat was a minus-465 favorite going into this fight,” Cormier said. “And the only reason he was a 5-to-1 favorite was because of what people had seen him do inside of the octagon and also what people had seen from Sean Strickland.”
Watch Cormier’s full UFC 328 reaction below:
Cormier Says Strickland’s Jab Changed The Fight
Cormier broke the fight down round by round and said Strickland answered the early wrestling problem after Chimaev took him down in round one.
“You got a Sean Strickland that got taken down in round one,” Cormier said. “Round two scored his own takedowns. Round three controlled the fight with a jab.”
Cormier did think Strickland missed a chance to push harder in the third round when Chimaev appeared to slow down.
“Honestly, I thought Strickland made a mistake in round three by not really pressing on the gas because I felt like Khamzat had a bit of an adrenaline dump,” Cormier said. “And if he really pressed him, he really could have made Khamzat struggle down the stretch, but he didn’t. But he wins round three.”
Cormier gave Chimaev credit for rallying later, but he kept coming back to the jab as Strickland’s biggest weapon.
“Round four, Khamzat comes back and he fights like Khamzat,” Cormier said. “I thought Strickland’s jab was probably the most effective punch of the entire fight. The way he was able to control the fight with that jab showed you how good Sean Strickland is.”
Cormier also noticed that Strickland had chances to throw the right hand but did not lean on it as much as he could have.
“The right hand seemed to be available, but he never threw it,” Cormier said.
Chimaev did have late success with pressure, but Cormier pushed back on the idea that walking forward automatically wins rounds.
“Round three, four, and five, Khamzat Chimaev really got on the gas and started backing up Sean Strickland,” Cormier said. “But if you know scoring, octagon control is no longer a scoring criteria when judging fights. It’s damage, duration, and domination. Dominance, sorry.”
Cormier said Chimaev had moments of control on the mat, but Strickland’s volume mattered more in the scoring picture.
“Khamzat showed control when he got him down,” Cormier said. “But even with the six minutes of top time, Sean still outlanded him by 50 strikes and a whole bunch of significant strikes.”
Then Cormier gave the cleanest summary of the fight.
“Sean Strickland fought a very, very good fight tonight in order to beat Khamzat Chimaev,” Cormier said. “And honestly, it is a blueprint for if you’re going to fight Khamzat.”
Cormier did not bury Chimaev after the loss. He made it clear this was not a case of Chimaev fighting terribly.
“The deal is this though. Khamzat Chimaev didn’t fight bad,” Cormier said. “He did not fight bad. Sean Strickland just fought better.”
Cormier also tied the win to Strickland’s rough stretch after the Dricus Du Plessis fights, when his corner dynamic with coach Eric Nicksick became a public talking point.
“To think a few fights ago, you thought that the Sean Strickland deal was done,” Cormier said. “Watching him look dejected against Dricus Du Plessis, not listening to the coaches, wondering aloud if him and his longtime coach Eric Nicksick were going to split and separate because they seemed so unaligned.”
Cormier said Strickland looked far from finished at UFC 328.
“You thought Sean Strickland was done, but he was far from done,” Cormier said. “He goes back and gets a couple victories, now beating ‘Mav,’ he’s beating Fluffy Hernandez, and tonight he beat the great Khamzat Chimaev to become the UFC middleweight world champion.”
Cormier said the result was unexpected, but huge for Strickland’s team.
“It is truly unexpected for me, but it is a special thing for Sean Strickland, his family, and his entire team,” Cormier said.
Nicksick also spoke with Cormier after the fight and said Strickland’s corner believed he won rounds two, three, and five.
“I like we had two, three, and five,” Nicksick said.
Nicksick said round four gave him a flashback to Strickland’s first Du Plessis fight because he felt his fighter let a round slip by easing off.
“Round four, I had a little bit of a flashback in the first DDP fight where I think it was around round three or four, we let one of those rounds kind of slip away because we took our foot off the gas pedal,” Nicksick said.
The corner expected Chimaev to wrestle late and told Strickland to meet him in the center.
“As you can see, he started wrestling with the one-minute mark,” Nicksick said. “So we’re like, all right, he’s trying to seal up these rounds. So we knew kind of going into round five, he’s going to rest up and then he might shoot. And then he reversed it and he told Sean, ‘Hey, let’s meet in the middle.’ And he shot on him.”
Nicksick said Strickland did the work needed for the matchup, helped by back-to-back grappling-heavy camps.
“No, man. I couldn’t be happier for Sean,” Nicksick said. “He did all the work, man. He did everything he was supposed to do. Got to bust his ass camp. Thankfully we had a very similar style matchup with Fluffy Hernandez that was going to be a lot of grappling. So we almost got two back-to-back camps that were grappling inside of.”
Cormier expects Chimaev to remain in the title picture, maybe immediately.
“Chimaev will be back,” Cormier said. “I don’t think for one second that it’s over for Chimaev. Honestly, Chimaev may be back right next for another championship opportunity against Sean Strickland for the UFC middleweight championship.”
Chimaev has also already sent Strickland a short post-loss message after UFC 328.
