Strickland ends Chimaev’s unbeaten run

Sean Strickland survived an attritional five-round battle against Khamzat Chimaev to win a razor-thin split decision and regain the UFC middleweight title at UFC 328 early on Sunday morning, handing the Chechen his first professional defeat in a fight in which he was heavily favoured by the bookmakers.

After a bad-tempered build-up to the bout, in which Strickland threatened to shoot Chimaev, the two finally faced off in the cage. The raucous home crowd’s chants of “USA!” were quickly stifled when the champion took the American to the mat early in the first round and dominated him.

Strickland turned the tables in the second round, thwarting takedown attempts and spending much of the frame in top position before using his superior boxing in the third to press home his advantage, despite suffering a suspected broken nose.

Despite his overpowering wrestling advantage, Chimaev continued to stand and trade blows for much of the fourth round before returning to his grappling base, taking his opponent back to the mat in the final minute of the frame, but Strickland utilised his clever jab and movement to do just enough to convince two of the three judges to award him the pivotal fifth round.

In the co-main event, Myanmar-born Joshua Van came storming back to defeat Tatsuro Taira and retain the flyweight title, surviving his Japanese opponent’s fearsome grappling attack to win by TKO in the fifth round.

The 24-year-old Van sent Taira crashing to the canvas with a thunderous right hand at the end of the second round, and the two engaged in a tremendous back-and-fourth bout until Van ended it one minute and 32 seconds into the final round with an unanswered barrage of blows.

In the featured heavyweight main card bout, second-ranked Alexander Volkov of Russia outlasted fourth-ranked Waldo Cortes-Acosta of the Dominican Republic, earning a unanimous decision win 30-27, 29-28, 29-28. Although it wasn’t a dynamic TKO from Volkov (40-11 MMA) that he’s primarily used to, volume striking made the difference.

Cortes-Acosta (17-3 MMA) had a three-fight winning streak snapped. The entire division remains at a standstill until Tom Aspinall returns to full health from his eye injury and the interim title fight between Alex Pereira and Cyril Gane at UFC Freedom 250. After that, what’s next for Volkov can be determined.

UFC welterweight Sean Brady overwhelmed Joaquin Buckley with ground strikes from the mount position across four takedowns, 12:09 of ground control time, and several submission attempts, winning a dominant unanimous decision -- 30-25, 30-25, 30-27.

Brady (19-2 MMA) bounced back, having now won four of his last five, with his only loss coming to Michael Morales in that span. Buckley (21-8 MMA) has done the opposite, taking back-to-back losses. Buckley is still seeking his first win since December 2024, landing only 21 strikes throughout the 15-minute contest against 245 from Brady.

King Green kicked off the UFC 328 main card emphatically with a first-round rear-naked choke (4:20) submission over fellow UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens at lightweight -- even though Stephens came in four pounds overweight -- in a one-sided affair. Green (35-17-1 MMA) picked up his 16th UFC win, extending his winning streak to three.

Agencies