Khamzat Chimaev wants Sean Strickland, and he says he’ll pay for the privilege. In a post on X on Monday, October 5, Chimaev offered Strickland one lemon emoji (internet shorthand for a million) and told him the venue was negotiable. Literally.
“Send me location and let’s fight don’t care outside inside the cage 🦾” Chimaev wrote, botching the spelling of Strickland’s name at the top of the post for good measure.
That number is no accident. The whole middleweight division has spent the last 48 hours talking about Strickland and money.
How We Got Here
Strickland and Nassourdine Imavov were widely expected to land on UFC 335 in December. The fight wasn’t announced for that card. Fight-news account @DovySimuMMA posted on October 4 that Strickland wasn’t on UFC 335 because he wanted more money. Imavov responded to the snub with a two-word jab on social media: “Playing tough.”
Then it got more specific. A post from X user @Erntastedfresh, which has not been confirmed by the UFC or Strickland’s camp, claimed Strickland is asking for $1 million to fight Imavov on January 16 at UFC 336, while the promotion is offering $400,000 to show and $400,000 to win. Imavov quoted that post and raised the stakes himself.
“If it’s really about money, I’ll put $500K of my own money on the line if you beat me in January,” Imavov wrote on X, adding that he was putting it on record. He kept going: “If you still don’t take it, then you’re just scared. I’ll handle you outside.” He also tagged the UFC and demanded the promotion strip Strickland, signing off with the hashtag #NoHappyEnding.
Less than 24 hours later, Chimaev showed up with a bigger bag and the same offer to handle things away from the Octagon.
As of now, nothing is booked. Strickland has not publicly accepted either offer, and the UFC has not announced an opponent for him on the January 16 card.
Quick Take
I love this so much. A week ago, Strickland’s problem was that the UFC wouldn’t pay him what he wanted. Now he’s got two of the scariest guys in his division lining up to cover the gap out of their own pockets, and one of them just matched his reported asking price to the dollar. That’s the funniest possible outcome of a contract standoff. Strickland has built a whole persona on saying whatever he wants and fighting whoever shows up, so the pressure here is real. If he’s holding out over money, Imavov and Chimaev just called the bluff in public. If he’s holding out over something else, he’s going to have to say what it is, because blaming the paycheck stops working once rival fighters start Venmoing you. My advice to the UFC: put Imavov’s $500K side bet in the contract, sell it on every promo between now and January 16, and let Chimaev sit cageside with his lemon emoji waiting for the winner.
