Chimaev Kicks Strickland at the UFC 328 Faceoff, Dana White Says Groin

Khamzat Chimaev kicked Sean Strickland during the faceoff that closed the UFC 328 press conference on Thursday, and security guards and police officers rushed the stage to pull the two middleweights apart.

The two were due to meet on Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where Chimaev would defend his middleweight title in the main event. The feud had been building since a round of trash talk in interviews and on social media. Throughout fight week the UFC tightened security and kept the two largely apart behind the scenes.

That ended on the press conference stage. Before either man had settled into his seat, they were trading heated words, and security stepped in to keep them apart. The insults, many of them personal and profane, continued through the session.

The build-up had included personal insults and escalating threats from both camps. By Thursday the two had never shared a stage during the week, and when they finally did, the hostility was immediate.

The kick

The trouble came at the faceoff after the event. Chimaev kicked Strickland, which brought the guards and police onto the stage in numbers before things could go further.

It first looked as though the kick had landed on Strickland's knee. UFC CEO Dana White later gave another version while appearing on Nina Marie Daniele's KICK stream, suggesting Strickland was actually struck in the groin.

Strickland went to X shortly afterward. He wrote that he had expected it all along, and he called Chimaev, who is unbeaten, a coward. "Exactly what I expected a coward to do," Strickland wrote.

Source: Low Kick MMA