Outside Source
Strickland is scheduled to challenge Chimaev for the middleweight title in the main event at UFC 328 on May 9 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Strickland jumped ahead of Nassourdine Imavov for the title shot with a stoppage win over Anthony Hernandez at UFC Houston last month. A massive underdog going into the fight, Strickland completely shut down Hernandez’s gruelling wrestling.
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The performance against Hernandez made many believe that Strickland can pull off a similar upset against Chimaev. However, Covington doesn’t think Strickland stands a chance against “Borz.” Covington believes Chimaev’s wrestling is on a completely different level than Hernandez’s. “Chaos” predicts that Chimaev will either earn a submission win over dominate Strickland on the ground for five rounds.
Completely Different Levels
“I’m not giving [Strickland] a chance,” Covington told Submission Radio. “Hernandez and Khamzat are completely different levels of grapplers in the way they approach their strategy. I think Khamzat’s gonna take him down and submit him… [Khamzat’s] not gonna be stupid and strike with Sean and make it a kickboxing fight. He’s just gonna make it straight grappling. I think he’s gonna push Strickland in some really bad positions and either submit him or just hold him out for 25 minutes.”
Strickland (30-7) and Chimaev (15-0) have been trading barbs about alleged sparring sessions at Xtreme Couture. While Chimaev claims to have submitted Strickland, the latter dismisses it as a situational grappling spar. According to Covington, MMA media member The Schmo saw Strickland getting dominated by Chimaev during sparring at Xtreme Couture.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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