Khamzat Chimaev will be back in action on 26th October after another year-long hiatus due to certain health problems. He pulled out from his previously booked fight against former champion Robert Whittaker in Saudi Arabia, but the duo will meet again. This time, it’s the UAE, and as we approach his fight at the UFC 308 PPV, we’ll take a look at an interesting story Chimaev had with another former champion, Sean Strickland.

It’s no secret that many UFC fighters who used to be close to each other saw their relationships sour for one reason or the other. It also happened between middleweight stars Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev, whose relationship also fell apart. Did you know that they used to spar with each other?

When Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland were training partners

Yes, there was a time when Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland were training partners. After sparring with him, ‘Tarzan’ got to know what kind of beast ‘Borz’ really was, and that once created a minor issue with the undefeated Emirati star. During one session, Strickland would get notified about Chimaev going hard on one of the sparring partners, after which he’d proceed to ask the 13-0 middleweight to relax a bit.

“Have you sparred him? He gets a little bit [raises hand]. He gets a little bit,” Sean Strickland was seen telling Khamzat Chimaev in a video that surfaced online. “Be nice. You’re better than most of them, you’re better than everybody. So just don’t hurt people.” In fact, another sparring partner of ‘Borz’ would reveal going through exact moments whenever he trained with the Emirati star.

“Oh dude, for sure the hardest guy to train is Khamzat,” Caio Borralho told ‘The Schmo’. “He’s a very hard guy to train. His style, his wrestling background, he’s very good at wrestling. He goes hard all the rounds. I think he’s one of the hardest training to do.”

About a year ago, Khamzat Chimaev got into a verbal scuffle with Sean Strickland. That started when he claimed to have bested the former middleweight champion during training.

Strickland and Chimaev clash over who won sparring exchanges

When Khamzat Chimaev returned to middleweight at UFC 294, he made a stunning revelation during the media day. The 30-year-old Chechnyan-born claimed to have manhandled Sean Strickland when they sparred with each other. Although Chimaev branded the former champion as a “good fighter,” he didn’t fail to mention that he got the better of him and that too, on multiple occasions.

“I’ve taken him down, I’ve held him down, I’ve choked him [and] I’ve punched him. I’ve done all those things, so I don’t see something special about him,” Khamzat Chimaev told the media. These statements quickly prompted a response from Sean Strickland’s team, as his coach Eric Nicksick would present their version of the story, setting the record straight by denying Chimaev’s claims.

“I don’t know what they saw in the gym, but that’s not the case by any means… what happens inside our gym stays within our gym,” Eric Nicksick revealed on ‘Submission Radio’. “Khamzat trains hard, man. He goes hard, he trains hard, and I think he made everybody in the room better. But by no means did I think that there was like, ‘oh, we’re at a disadvantage,’ by any means at all.”

However, the commotion didn’t end there as Khamzat Chimaev took yet another dig at ‘Tarzan’ after his UFC 297 loss. After Sean Strickland lost the title, ‘Borz’ appeared to be in the running for a title shot. As expected the former champion wasn’t having it and questioned his deservingness. That led Chimaev to yet again, in his words, remind him how he defeated him in training multiple times in training.

“Ask that guy who was beating him up every day in the gym. How many times I submit that guy? How many times I beat him up?” Khamzat Chimaev made this comment during an ESPN interview. After that, the noise from the two sides died down. However, Sean Strickland didn’t wait for long and made some controversial remarks about the Emirati star.

The many controversial exchanges between ‘Borz’ and ‘Tarzan’

A few months ago, Sean Strickland posted a tweet, taking aim at Khamzat Chimaev for allegedly scamming his fans after promoting a crypto coin named Smash. The popular belief is that the Emirati star and his team might have been owners of that coin. But later, it was reported that fans lost millions of dollars and some believed that Chimaev might have a part to play in it.

“Crazy man you’re rich and still try to scam your fans,” Sean Strickland tweeted. “Been on X too much. I’ll leave you all with this. This was 100 percent to scam his fans.” However, Chimaev would later come clean about the whole mess, claiming that he promoted the coin after his coach asked him to do it without doing any kind of background check.

“I also made a mistake in this crypto… I don’t even have time to look at what it is… We will make them [the wrongdoers] apologize for it,” Khamzat Chimaev told Russian YouTuber Aslanbek Badaev. But Sean Strickland’s onslaught wouldn’t end there as the former champion would go all in with his trash talk and some controversial remarks and pointing fingers at his inability to fight in the US.

“I love how the world just over looks this guy’s past… Builds a life in Sweden, goes and becomes best friends with an absolute monster who pretty much bought him like a W… then when the leash got too tight he fled to the Middle East… You should not be allowed in this country. You [sold] your soul to a t—–ist dictator… You are not compatible with America… Thank god we don’t do drone strikes in that part of the sand pit… Sick of the UFC forgetting it’s an American company,” Sean Strickland wrote on X.

While Khamzat Chimaev will be fighting in the title eliminator against Robert Whittaker, Sean Strickland has been promised a title shot by Dana White against the winner of the Dricus du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya rematch. But will Chimaev and Strickland ever face each other inside the Octagon? That remains to be seen.