Khamzat Chimaev wants to pay Sean Strickland one lemon. In fight-Twitter produce, that’s $1 million, and Borz posted it on X on Monday with a misspelled name, a lemon emoji and a flexing robot arm: “Striciland I will pay you 1 🍋 Send me location and let’s fight don’t care outside inside the cage 🦾”
That is the funniest, scariest and smartest thing anybody in the middleweight division has done since May. I love it. And if Strickland lets it sit there unanswered, the tough-guy act takes a real hit.
Quick refresher for anyone who blacked out this summer. Strickland took a split decision over Chimaev at UFC 328 on May 9 at the Prudential Center in Newark to win the middleweight title. It was the first loss of Chimaev’s career. The two hugged after the fight and squashed the beef, then went right back to taking shots at each other in the media, because of course they did. Chimaev has been chasing a rematch ever since.
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The Timing Is the Weapon
The offer isn’t what makes this villain work. The timing is. Strickland said he isn’t fighting at UFC 335 because he and the UFC can’t agree on his purse. Essentially Sports reported he’s asking for $1 million to defend against Nassourdine Imavov at UFC 336 on January 16. So what does Chimaev offer? One million. The exact number. He walked up to a contract dispute, found the sore spot and pressed his thumb into it.
It gets better. Imavov had already offered Strickland $500,000 out of his own pocket, which Essentially Sports framed as a bonus if Strickland beat him in January. Chimaev saw that and doubled it overnight. We now have two contenders running a private auction on the champion’s paycheck while the actual promotion stands there holding the clipboard. That’s Bond villain energy. Open the briefcase, slide it across the table, say nothing.
And the “send me location” line is a meme, sure, but it hits different coming from this particular guy. Chimaev has been stuck on the UFC sidelines, healing up lingering injuries after the promotion failed to find him an opponent (he said he’d take another contender, and nothing came). So he went and wrestled on RAF mats three times since the Strickland loss and won all three. He’s booked to wrestle Robbie Lawler at RAF 14, the card topped by Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dillon Danis, and then Colby Covington at RAF Abu Dhabi on November 14 for the RAF Crossover title, the same night as UFC 334. Back in April he put up $200,000 for any Olympic gold medalist who could “survive” an MMA sparring session with him, and he called out Kyle Snyder by name.
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That’s a guy who will grapple anybody, anywhere, for any stakes. When he says inside or outside the cage, you don’t fully believe he’s joking. That little flicker of genuine menace is what this sport has been missing while everybody argues about pay-per-view buys and fight-week weigh-in drama.
Where Strickland Stands
Here’s the best case for Strickland ignoring it. He already beat Chimaev, he holds the belt, and Imavov has earned the shot with five straight wins, including Israel Adesanya and Caio Borralho. Chimaev himself conceded the point earlier: “There’s no surprise. How long has Imavov been waiting now? He’s already the contender. Whoever wins, we’ll take him,” he said.
Fair. Also beside the point. Nobody needs Strickland to meet Chimaev in a Denny’s parking lot. The outside-the-cage stuff isn’t happening and doesn’t have to. Taking the bait means answering. It means saying, out loud, that he’ll run it back and that the UFC can match Chimaev’s number or get out of the way. Strickland is the one who opened the money conversation. A rival just walked in and said the number out loud. You can’t spend months saying you’re underpaid and then go quiet when somebody waves the exact figure in your face.
And let’s be honest about that split decision. A split means two judges saw it one way and one saw it the other. That isn’t a closed case. Imavov has a legit claim, but Strickland already handled him by clear unanimous decision in 2023. The rematch with real heat, real money and real unfinished business is Chimaev. A fighter who sells himself as the toughest guy in the room doesn’t get to hide behind the rankings when the scariest man in the division is offering to pay him.
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MMA Fighting noted Strickland hasn’t responded yet, and given these two, a reply probably isn’t far off. I hope it’s ugly. I hope it’s profane. I hope it ends with a counteroffer.
Next up on the calendar, Chimaev wrestles Covington in Abu Dhabi on November 14, and UFC 336 lands January 16 with Strickland’s name still not signed to anything. Two months is plenty of time to send a location.
