Khamzat Chimaev lost to Sean Strickland. The judges said so: 47-48, 48-47, 48-47. Now he wants the winner of a title fight he isn't even in because, in his words, "I'm the real champion." No. He's a guy who lost a close fight and won't admit it.
This is what he told MMA Junkie: "It should be the winner because I'm the No. 1 contender, and I didn't lose that match. People say I lost the match, but I'm the real champion." That's pride talking, and pride is fine. Every great fighter thinks he won the fights he lost. But a split decision that left media members nearly divided, 13 of 24 leaning his way in one poll, was just close. It went against him by a hair, and a close fight is still just a close fight. He had five rounds to leave no doubt against Strickland and he didn't do it.
We know what leaving no doubt looks like because Chimaev showed us. When he took the belt from Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319, the cards read 50-44 across the board. He landed twelve of seventeen takedowns, controlled the fight for more than twenty minutes, and outstruck Du Plessis 529-45. That's a man who took the judges out of the equation. Against Strickland he shot for takedowns early, landed nine of them, then did almost nothing with the position while Strickland outworked him down the stretch. He set his own standard, and the Strickland fight fell short of it.
Look at who's actually next. Nassourdine Imavov has reportedly been promised a shot at the UFC 328 winner, and he earned it the boring, correct way: five straight wins since his only recent loss, which came against Strickland back in January 2023. He didn't demand anything. He stacked wins until the matchmaking had no choice. That's the path the rulebook pretends to hold everyone to.
Strickland knows that path too; he lived the ugly version of it. He lost his belt to Du Plessis at UFC 297, ground out a split decision over Paulo Costa at UFC 302, lost to Du Plessis again at UFC 312, and only then fought his way back into a title shot. It took a loss, a tune-up win, and another loss for him to earn the Chimaev fight. Chimaev wants to skip all of it.
Chimaev was a genuinely frightening talent whose prime got chewed up by inactivity and bad luck, and one narrow loss shouldn't erase that. It doesn't. But it puts him where every other former champion sits, Du Plessis included: in line, credible, waiting behind whoever's next. A scary reputation buys you a good fight. Nothing more.
So far the UFC has held the line. Chimaev campaigned for a rematch and got turned down; Imavov got the nod instead. That's the right call, and it stays the right call only as long as it holds. Strickland vs. Imavov isn't formally booked yet, tangled up in Strickland's pay standoff, which Chimaev couldn't resist needling: "He's always crying about something, so I'm just being ready." Ready for a fight he hasn't earned. If Dana White eventually hands him that winner on name value alone, that's star power beating the record book, and the blame lands on White. A fighter angling for an easy payday is just doing what fighters do.
Chimaev wants to be called the real champion again. He should beat somebody first.
