Sean Strickland became the first opponent to solve the previously unsolvable puzzle that was Khamzat Chimaev.
Strickland became a two-time middleweight champion thanks to a split decision win at UFC 328, nine months after Chimaev won the title with a unanimous decision over Dricus Du Plessis.
The South African ex-champ was in attendance at the Prudential Center in New Jersey taking the action in person with his former foes in the spotlight.
Du Plessis couldn’t solve Chimaev when they headlined UFC 319 last August as he was unable to keep their fight on the feet long enough to land any significant offence.
In a clear example of MMA math being an unreliable science, Du Plessis has beaten Strickland twice – once via split decision in 2024 in Strickland’s first attempt to defend the title and again via unanimous decision in 2025.
Chimaev was successful on 12 of his 17 takedown attempts against Du Plessis and accumulated 21:40 of control time as he swept the scorecards last summer. Chimaev was nine for 16 on takedowns against Strickland but only had 7:16 of control time, nearly all of which happened during a dominant first round.
With 50 total minutes of experience in the cage with Strickland and 25 with Chimaev, Du Plessis went on record before the fight predicting Strickland would win the fight based on the style matchup despite being a four-to-one underdog.
Du Plessis hasn’t fought since losing his title but with him being 2-0 against the current champion the 32-year-old sounded confident when asked for his thoughts on UFC 328 and the updated title picture.
“Fight went exactly the way I thought it would,” Du Plessis told the UFC social media team after Saturday’s main event. “Great, great fight by Strickland. Like I said, it’s so hard to keep that man on the ground. He is incredibly tough to hold down and he made Khamzat tired and that’s exactly what happened. I knew, like I said, in the standup (Chimaev) just won’t be able to hang with him.
“Congratulations (to Strickland). I guess this makes me world champion again.”
With Chimaev seemingly leaving the 185-pound division after he told UFC president Dana White he plans on moving up to 205 pounds, it potentially opens the door for Du Plessis to return to a championship fight sooner than would’ve been the case had Chimaev defended the belt.