Daniel Cormier sent a warning to Khamzat Chimaev following Sean Strickland’s win.
Strickland returned to the win column by beating Anthony Hernandez after spending over a 12 months away from the Octagon.
The previous middleweight champion was capable of halt the longest lively win streak within the division in impressive fashion by stopping ‘Fluffy’ within the third round.
Strickland’s callout of Khamzat Chimaev didn’t go unnoticed by the present titleholder at 185 kilos.
Daniel Cormier believes that if the identical version of the controversial American who fought on Saturday night faces off with ‘Borz’, things may not go what number of would expect them to.
- LATEST NEWS: Sean Strickland apologizes to Anthony Hernandez after upsetting his daughter before UFC Houston
Daniel Cormier warns Khamzat Chimaev that Sean Strickland looks back to his best
Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev have exchanged loads of words in recent times, with references being made to the time they’ve spent training alongside each other.
Each men are such distinct personalities that the concept of the American being the champion’s first title challenger a beautiful option for the UFC.
In fact, with a purpose to put his name back into the combination, the previous titleholder needed a giant win and a few were questioning whether Strickland’s profession was on the decline.
Beating Anthony Hernandez would’ve answered those questions, but stopping him within the third round put them to bed in the intervening time.
Daniel Cormier disregarded Strickland’s two losses to Dricus du Plessis when saying that the previous champion looked back to his best at UFC Houston, which makes a Chimaev matchup more interesting.
“Can Sean defend Khamzat to the purpose where he doesn’t get ridden out and brought down and controlled for 25 minutes? I don’t know that but I’ll let you know one thing that I do know. If that guy that showed up tonight shows up in that fight, it is going to be far more difficult a fight for the nice Khamzat Chimaev,” Cormier said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“Why? Because even Israel Adesanya at the height of his powers struggled with that version of Sean Strickland. The Dricus Du Plessis fight, it didn’t look like Sean was locked all the way in which in. He seemed a little bit tousled and it showed… He didn’t look the identical but tonight he looked the identical. He looked just like the guy that became a world champion.”
- LATEST NEWS: Debutant Josiah Harrell amongst three UFC Houston fighters transported to hospital after worrying loss
Gilbert Burns corrected Sean Strickland following his Khamzat Chimaev criticisms
Within the post-fight press conference after UFC Houston, Sean Strickland spoke about Khamzat Chimaev being a bully and the way he wouldn’t back down from him contained in the Octagon.
We’ve seen other fighters go toe-to-toe with ‘Borz’ prior to now and find success, which Strickland made reference to when highlighting one fight particularly.
“Take a look at Gilbert Burns, dude. Gilbert Burns f—— pulled his card, dude. Gilbert Burns is like 5’8 and almost f—– him up, did a god rattling good job. Gilbert Burns is a savage.”
Burns responded by congratulating Strickland following his win via X, though he made sure so as to add, “But come on, I’m 5’10.”