Dominick Cruz thinks Sean Strickland can solve the Khamzat Chimaev puzzle.
UFC middleweight champion Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) makes his first title defense against former champ Strickland (30-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) in the UFC 328 main event on May 9 in Newark, N.J. (Paramount+).
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Chimaev dominated Dricus Du Plessis on the ground to claim the belt, but Cruz expects Strickland to show more resistance than the South African fighter.
“For Khamzat, unless he just improved a lot, in the Dricus fight he just needed to fight that way in order to keep Dricus down,” Cruz told MMA Junkie. “It’s going to be similar with Sean. Sean’s not an easy guy to hold down. He’s very, very well seasoned from his back to getting up. It’s just his game. I had a similar game, and I’m very hard to hold down. Strickland has that same mentality. With DDP, he wasn’t making some of the best decisions from his back.
“I think Strickland is more seasoned from getting up from his back than DDP, personally. But Khamzat is using position over submission, so he was using his positional weight and perfection of it rather than going for the submission. Sometimes going for the submission will give them the out to get up. I just think he was wearing him out and making a smart fight against DDP.”
Strickland is a big underdog against Chimaev, but Cruz is ultimately picking him for the upset.
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“I’ll go with Strickland,” Cruz said. “I’ll go with the American. Why not? 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. We need to see it. I like it. I’ll take him. Why not? Let’s go American.”
Strickland recently said he’d pull out his gun and shoot Chimaev if he gets attacked by their team. Cruz thinks while Strickland is making some outrageous claims, it’s all just pre-fight buildup.
“He hasn’t been arrested has he? He says a lot of stuff, but he follows the rules to an extent,” Cruz said. “When he’s carrying a weapon, it’s legal. I think that he rides the line of like legal and not legal, following the rules and not following the rules. He rides the lines and he talks a lot, but why not have him there? He’s not getting in trouble. He hasn’t yet. Could he? That’s a different question. But he hasn’t yet so I don’t mind seeing him there. He brings a lot to the table, but I think the pressure builds up when he gets there. It’s hard to be the guy. It’s harder than people think to be the guy.
“The expectation goes up, so you’re always supposed to win. So Strickland being the underdog is going to help him in this fight. It’s an ‘everyone is looking past me’ type of thing. And when you’re champion, nobody looks past you anymore. You’re always the guy, so you’ve got to really know who you are because you can no longer count on other people counting you out most of the time. You’ve got to know who you are because you’re the only one that’s going to fuel you for six defenses in a row. It’s a different game. That’s what Strickland learned in his first reign and he’s going to take that to his second reign and use it and adapt.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 328: Analyst says Chimaev vs. Strickland ‘not so lopsided’
