Khamzat Chimaev
Chimaev went straight at Sean Strickland on X, writing “Striciland I will pay you 1 🍋” and following it with “Send me location and let’s fight don’t care outside inside the cage 🦾”. The lemon emoji is common slang for a million in Russian-speaking circles, so read it one of two ways. Either Khamzat is floating a seven-figure parking lot fight, or he’s offering Strickland a single piece of fruit. Both are hilarious. I’ll always take a guy who names his target, misspells it, and says the cage is optional over another fighter politely promising to take whoever the UFC hands him.
Court McGee
The other big story of the day is a quieter one. McGee announced on X that Saturday was his final UFC fight, writing “16 years. 29 fights, including my time in the Ultimate Fighter house.” He lost that last one, but he wrote “I didn’t get my hand raised, but I’m incredibly proud of my performance, proud of my opponent, and genuinely happy for him.” He also said he finally slowed down enough this time to soak in the whole camp, fight week, and the walk, and he paid tribute to 13 coaches and training partners he has lost. “I gave this sport everything I had,” he wrote, and 29 trips through the UFC machine backs that up. Tip of the cap.
Nassourdine Imavov
Imavov fired off a post on X mocking the line “He’s not scared, he already beat you” with a clown emoji. He then laid out his rebuttal: “4 years ago, up a weight class, and nothing to lose. Today, everything to lose not the same ME and he knows it”, signing off with “EASY MONEY 😂”. He didn’t name the guy in the post, but the subtext is loud. Imavov is telling everyone an old loss up a division doesn’t count anymore, and that kind of confidence is exactly what I want from somebody chasing a rematch.
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Sean Strickland
Strickland’s latest viral X post had nothing to do with Chimaev. It was a gripe about how Indian cooks supposedly get food on the floor, capped by his complaint that “from a pure economic standpoint point you’re wasting 20 percent of the fucking product.” Sean doing cultural commentary through a spreadsheet is very on brand. The bigger question for fight fans is whether he puts the economist hat down long enough to answer the lemon.
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Noel
The RIZIN fighter Noel responded on X to a fan who said her being a high schooler or 18 years old didn’t matter since she’s paid to fight, adding that the fight was so dull the venue went cold. Noel agreed with the criticism, saying age is no excuse for a professional and that she wants fans to find her fights fun regardless of the result. She closed with “アグレッシブファイターになれるように。”, a promise to become an aggressive fighter. An 18-year-old owning a flat performance instead of blaming the crowd is more accountability than half the UFC roster shows after a decision loss.
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Renato Moicano
Moicano quote-tweeted a wild story from an account claiming that Paulo Nogueira, after losing to Héctor Santiago at MMMMA1, left Rio de Janeiro to fight as a mercenary on the Ukrainian side of the war. That same account noted Santiago went on to sign with the UFC. Moicano stretched the promotion’s name into MMMMMMMMA and summed it up with “Doidera meu padrin”, Brazilian slang for that’s crazy, my guy. Nobody does incredulous better than Moicano.
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Sekine Hideki (Shrek)
The Japanese heavyweight posted his career timeline on X. He made his MMA debut at DEEP Hamamatsu at 36 and 100 kg, fought at Ganryujima at 43 and 110 kg, made it to RIZIN at 49 and 115 kg, and was at ROMAN at 52, still at 115 kg. He said half his career has been cross-discipline fights and that his life has been mostly setbacks, then landed the line “だがそれが面白い。” which translates to but that’s what makes it interesting. A 52-year-old gaining weight and fight promotions at the same rate is my new favorite stat.
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