The UFC isn’t risking anything derailing the middleweight title fight this weekend.
This coming Saturday, the premier MMA promotion returns to Newark, New Jersey for UFC 328, headlined by a middleweight title fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland.
Despite previously being teammates, ‘Borz’ and Strickland have been locked into an extremely bitter rivalry which has been expected to reach boiling point before they step into the Octagon.
Not long ago, Strickland made comments that he would ‘shoot’ the Chechen and his team if they jumped him during fight week.
If Sean Strickland is able to stop Khamzat Chimaev’s dominant wrestling, how much of a chance do you give him?🤔
Sean Strickland is believed to have the striking advantage over Khamzat Chimaev.
Brendan Allen says Chimaev’s team has been warned about kicking off
The UFC has already taken drastic measures to make sure there aren’t any unnecessary meetings between Chimaev’s team and Strickland, with the two reportedly staying in separate hotels.
Not only that, but Dana White canceled the new Paramount+ face offs that main event fighters have been partaking in since the beginning of the year.
And now, just a matter of days away from their highly-anticipated clash, Chimaev’s coaches have warned the team to not stir any drama during fight week.
“Khamzat’s team nor anyone on it that’s part of his entourage or whatever you want to call it, is going to jeopardize that opportunity,” Brendan Allen told MMAJunkie.
“I promise you that nobody is going to do anything to jeopardize it. Now if someone approaches them and tries to put hands on them, hey, they’re not responsible for that. But as far as them initiating and starting a problem, I highly doubt that happens. There will be lots of repercussions for anyone who does that outside of the UFC or anything like that.
“I highly doubt you see anything come from their side. Everyone knows what’s at stake and like the coaches said: If you care about Khamzat, you won’t do anything fight week. You’ll let everything be and let Khamzat handle the job how he’s going to handle it come fight night.”
This coming Thursday there is a pre-fight press conference scheduled with just the main and co-main event fighters scheduled to take part.
And with that, there is expected to be an extremely heightened amount of security on job in case anything kicks off.
Strickland has joked that he will be in handcuffs throughout fight week stating that the UFC are trying to limit his interactions with the champion.
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