The Ultimate Fighting Championship finalized the card for UFC 328 on Tuesday, with the previously revealed Khamzat Chimaev-Sean Strickland middleweight title bout headlining the May 9 event in Newark, N.J.
UFC president and CEO Dana White first announced that matchup last week. It’s a rivalry with some bad blood that has yet to result in a face-to-face in the Octagon.
For Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC), it marks his first defense of the middleweight belt he won last August at UFC 319 via unanimous decision over Dricus du Plessis. The 31-year-old from Russia hasn’t fought since.
Strickland (30-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) is a controversial figure in the sport. Earlier this month, he wrote on Facebook about his fight with Chimaev that, “We’re not fighting at the White House. They don’t like terrorists there.”
UFC 328 will be the promotion’s last numbered event before the first-of-its-kind June 14 event on the White House grounds, UFC Freedom 250.
Strickland, 35, defeated Anthony Hernandez by TKO in a UFC Fight Night headliner last month in Houston. It was Strickland’s first bout in more than a year. He’ll get a chance at Chimaev despite being the No. 3-ranked contender.
The second fight on the billing is Alexander Volkov against Waldo Cortes Acosta in the heavyweight division. The rest of the card includes:
–Sean Brady vs. Joaquin Buckley, welterweight
–Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov, light heavyweight
–King Green vs, Jeremy Stephens, lightweight
–Ateba Gautier vs. Ozzy Diaz, middleweight
–Field Level Media
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