Sean Strickland gives Nate Diaz no chance against Khamzat Chimaev.
Diaz (20-13 MMA, 18-12 UFC) faces undefeated phenom Chimaev (11-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) on Sept. 10 at UFC 279 and is a massive underdog heading into their headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Having trained with Chimaev before, Strickland (25-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) expects him to run through Diaz.
“I don’t know, man. Do you have to get ready for Nate Diaz?,” Strickland said in an interview with The Schmo. “The UFC just said, ‘Hey, Khamzat, we love you. Come f*cking beat up this old man.’ When’s the last time he won a fight? I don’t even think Khamzat really has to get ready for him. He’s probably just gonna roll in, not even train, coming off the couch, and just go and destroy him.”
Strickland even had to tame Chimaev during a recent training session at his gym Xtreme Couture, where “Borz” was allegedly going a little too hard on his sparring partners.
“Chimaev is like a f*cking dog with a bone,” Strickland said. “He spars, he trains, and there’s a f*cking target on their back. He was sparring one of my buddies, a ’55er who moved up to 170, a lower-level pro, and I was just telling Chimaev, ‘I understand that you like to f*cking smash, but if you want to spar him, you gotta respect him, because he’s here to help you. He’s not at your level. And Chimaev was all about it. He understood, and he had good sparring.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 279.