Chimaev Faces Strickland at UFC 328 Middleweight Title Fight — Ufc Fight
Khamzat Chimaev puts his middleweight title on the line against Sean Strickland in a ufc fight at UFC 328 on Saturday, May 9, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. The unbeaten champion is making his first title defence, while Strickland gets another shot after taking a much different route into this one.
Chimaev, Strickland and Newark
The 13-fight card is headlined by the middleweight championship bout, with Joshua Van of Myanmar meeting Tatsuro Taira of Japan in the co-main event for the men’s flyweight title. Chimaev enters as a significant betting favourite according to BetMGM, while Strickland arrives as the challenger.
That pairing carries extra weight because Strickland was a betting underdog with odds longer than four-to-one the last time he fought Israel Adesanya in 2023. He upset Adesanya then, and he now steps into another championship spotlight against a champion who has never been defeated in mixed martial arts.
Thursday’s press conference flashpoint
The buildup turned physical on Thursday when Chimaev kicked Strickland at the pre-fight press conference. Security and police hauled both men offstage after the altercation, and Strickland later wrote, "Exactly what I expected a coward to do" on social media.
That exchange leaves the title fight with a sharper edge than most championship buildups. It also puts the focus back on the actual stakes inside the cage, where Chimaev is trying to get through his first title defence and Strickland is trying to repeat the kind of upset that changed his 2023 run.
UFC 328 start times
Preliminary coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 9, with the pay-per-view main card set for 9 p.m. ET. The fight night also includes scheduled bouts between Alexander Volkov and Waldo Cortes-Acosta, Bobby "King" Green and Jeremy Stephens, and Baisangur Susurkaev and Djorden Santos.
For fans heading into Newark, the card already has a clear center of gravity: Chimaev’s title, Strickland’s upset history, and a champion who has yet to lose in mixed martial arts. The rest of the lineup fills out a championship night built around that main event and the flyweight title fight behind it.
