Kamaru Usman: Sean Strickland will be tricky for Khamzat Chimaev

Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman believes a potential showdown between surging middleweight contender Sean Strickland and undefeated star Khamzat Chimaev hinges on one intangible: Chimaev’s willingness to abandon a single-minded grappling approach and embrace a more versatile game plan.

Strickland staked his claim to a title opportunity last weekend at UFC Fight Night 267, where he stopped Anthony Hernandez via third-round TKO. The victory improved Strickland’s promotional ledger to 17-7 and positioned him as the most logical challenger for Chimaev, who owns a perfect 15-0 record including nine straight inside the Octagon.

Usman, who has shared the cage with both men, offered a detailed scouting report on the Pound 4 Pound podcast he co-hosts with Henry Cejudo. He outpointed Strickland in a one-sided welterweight decision in 2017, and later pushed Chimaev to the brink in a short-notice middleweight bout that many observers scored narrowly in the Chechen’s favor.

“Strickland is extremely tricky to hit,” Usman explained. “Everyone gets into this sport and everyone swings at people’s heads and try to take off their head. Strickland has this weird style of kind of relax here, and throws his hands up to block, and leans away to where it’s very difficult for people to get to his face, to hit him.”

That unorthodox defensive shell, Usman argues, could frustrate Chimaev if the initial takedown attempts fail. Historically, Chimaev has relied on relentless chain-wrestling to smother opponents, a tactic that has carried him through every professional fight to date. Usman warns that an over-reliance on that one path to victory could backfire against Strickland, whose forward pressure and awkward angles disrupted even elite strikers like Israel Adesanya.

“Khamzat has that one tool that he uses and he could just dominate everybody, but when he’s focused on just using that tool, and it doesn’t work, then he looks bad in other places,” Usman said. “Khamzat has really good striking – like really good. Let’s not forget, it was one shot, put someone away at one point. Or he stood with Gilbert Burns, and he dropped him a few times. … Now we’re seeing videos of him going with light heavyweights, and he’s kind of outstriking them.”

The key, according to the former champion, is mindset. If Chimaev enters the cage determined to prove he can take Strickland down at will, he risks emotional fallout when the fight hits a stalemate on the feet. Conversely, embracing a fluid, mixed-martial-arts approach could unlock the full breadth of Chimaev’s abilities and force Strickland to solve problems in every phase.

“I think it’s a mentality thing,” Usman continued. “If he can switch the mentality to be a free mixed martial artist to where it’s not, ‘I have to get this guy down, I have to hold him down or else I might lose this,’ I think we really start to see that arsenal. I think this could be that fight to make it happen because we know if you can’t get Strickland down, and he starts marching downhill, it’s a problem. We saw that with Israel Adesanya. So I think it’s a very intriguing fight. I love it.”

With both athletes healthy and the divisional title picture crystallizing, the matchup appears increasingly inevitable. Whether Chimaev heeds Usman’s advice could determine whether the champion’s undefeated streak continues—or whether Strickland’s awkward, pressuring style ushers in a new era at 185 pounds.