The middleweight division has seen its fair share of trash talk, rivalries, and bitter feuds that often spill over from training rooms to social media and eventually into the cage itself. Khamzat Chimaev just added another explosive chapter to this ongoing soap opera. After capturing the middleweight title at UFC 319 with a dominant performance against Dricus Du Plessis, the Chechen fighter found himself dealing with some unexpected commentary from his former training partner Sean Strickland. <\/p>
What started as typical post-fight analysis quickly turned into a war of words that somehow managed to drag Paulo Costa into the mess. The whole situation perfectly captures the weird dynamics that exist in MMA, where former teammates can become bitter rivals fast.<\/p>
Sean Strickland has never been one to keep his thoughts to himself. The former middleweight champion made some eyebrow raising claims about his old training sessions with Chimaev. According to Strickland, he used to regularly out grapple the newly crowned champion during their five round training sessions. He even went as far as promising to work his way back to a title shot just to prove his grappling superiority over Chimaev.<\/p>