The bad blood between Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev has been simmering for years, but we are now close to one of the most volatile matches in recent UFC history.
Meanwhile, in the co-main event Joshua Van dominated Tatsuro Taira in their battle for the flyweight title.
PPV: UFC 328: Chimaev v Strickland | SUN 10 MAY 11AM AEST | UFC Middleweight Champion Khamzat Chimaev will return to the octagon for the first defence of his title, where he takes on former champ Sean Strickland, in Newark. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.
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VAN’S FLYWEIGHT MASTERCLASS
Joshua Van, take a bow.
The 24-year-old Burmese superstar has retained his title with a stellar performance, showcasing his lightning-fast striking.
In the second round Van unleashed a wave of punches, which saw Taira land flat on his back before getting in the clinch.
He survived, but it was a huge moment in the fight which the Japanese gun was left “hurt bad” from according to Daniel Cormier.
“Joshua Van with a perfect right hand, he looked like he was out. Look at his head roll back,” Joe Rogan said.
From there, Taira looked to be struggling for the remainder of the bout and was left with blood pouring out of his face in the third.
He attempted a rear-naked choke but was unable to get the grip he needed, with Taira slipping out of his grasp.
“He’s so dangerous, my goodness,” Cormier said.
“Van has fought a perfect round.”
Van continued to dominate until he secured a stoppage in the fifth round after another wave of punches, with Taira disputing the referee’s decision.
It was two body shots, followed by a huge right hand that left Taira reeling — while Van jumped up on the cage to celebrate his win.
“Taira is protesting the stoppage, but it was absolutely the right decision,” Rogan said.
MILLER’S TIMELY VICTORY
Earlier on UFC 328, 42-year-old Jim Miller added another chapter to his amazing career with his 20th finish in the promotion.
He secured another submission win in front of his home crowd in New Jersey, celebrating accordingly on the octagon, saluting to the fans.
“Jim Miller does it again in his native New Jersey,” Jon Anik said.
While Daniel Cormier said: “He snapped that neck up real fast” after securing a victory by guillotine choke submission at 3:29 of the first round.
The win comes after his 14-year-old son Wyatt recovered from a rare cancer which targets soft tissue called rhabdomyosarcoma.
“My son went through some really difficult times in the last couple of months,” he said.
“He ended up kicking the s–t out of cancer, and he’s all good today. We are cancer free.
“And one of the things I told him when he was dealing with it when he first got diagnosed is Millers have been called a lot of names over the years, but fragile has never been one of them.”
A UFC PROPOSAL?
UFC flyweight Jose Ochoa delivered one of the biggest results of his career on Sunday morning at UFC 328 – and then topped it off by proposing to his girlfriend at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Fresh off an excellent performance against Clayton Carpenter and claiming the decision victory, Ochoa waved off questions from Joe Rogan about the fight to drop the question.
Holding a ring up to the camera, it was clear what the 25-year-old Peruvian was doing despite the language barrier.
“I want to do something special for my soon-to-be wife,” he said via a translator.
“The mother of my child, do you wanna marry me?”
Rogan asked: “Is she here?”
Following the fight, media caught up with Ochoa backstage to ask if she accepted.
“Yes, she said yes,” Ochoa told MMA Fighting.
“She was waiting for that moment.”
It was Ochoa’s first win since going down to Asu Almabayev last July.
Ochoa is now 2-2 in the UFC.
Two-time champ’s shock prediction for main event
Two-time UFC champion Dominick Cruz has tipped Sean Strickland to shock the world as he prepares to face the current middleweight title holder Khamzat Chimaev in the UFC 328 main event.
Chimaev will defend his title for the first time since claiming the belt in a dominant decision victory over Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319 in August last year.
It marked the first loss of Du Plessis’ career and it was a one-sided one at that, with Chimaev landing a UFC record 529 total strikes while taking the South African down 12 times.
All up, Chimaev had more than 21 minutes of control and the challenge for Strickland will be to not fall into that same trap.
Cruz, however, believes Strickland could prove a tough fighter to “keep down” and that the American has a chance to pull off the stunning upset.
“He’s very, very well seasoned from his back to getting up. It’s just his game,” Cruz told MMA Junkie.
“… It’s not so lopsided to me. I like Strickland. I like this style. He brings all the things to the table that make this a real fight.
“His style of striking is built for a wrestler to try to take him down. If there was a guy that could challenge Khamzat, this is the guy.”
ULTIMATE GUIDE: Full card, prediction as MMA’s most heated rivalry set to explode
Chimaev,Strickland separated at weigh in | 00:57
While Australian lightweight rising star Quillan Salkilld said he can’t see “anybody beating Chimaev at this point”, he does believe like Cruz that Strickland will be hard to keep down.
“The main thing for him would be getting back to his feet because it would be inevitable that he is going to get taken down,” Salkilld told Main Event’s ‘Fight Week’ program.
“But I think if he’s able to get back to his feet and create scrambles and then put his own pressure on… getting takedowns is very hard on the gas tank so I think after a few takedowns and scrambles it’ll be sapping at Khamzat’s gas tank, which will make it easy for Strickland to put hands on (Chimaev) and hunt the finish.”
In other headline fights on the main card, UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van defends his crawn against the No.3 ranked Tatsuro Taira while No.2 ranked contender Alexander Volkov meets No. 4 Waldo Cortes Acosta in a heavyweight scrap that is sure to produce highlights.
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