UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev has turned old training-room tension into headline controversy, accusing former training partner Sean Strickland of a dramatic overreaction during their time at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
What began as a short-lived training relationship has morphed into a bitter public feud, and Chimaev didn’t hold back when he described how things went sideways.
Chimaev recalled the moment that changed everything and painted a clear picture of how it all spiraled into danger.
“I don’t know. When we used to train together, he was normal. Well, one time I got angry with him and the next day he was walking around the gym with a gun, he thought I’d attack him,” Chimaev said on the Badaev Podcast.
The pair once seemed close. Chimaev spent months bouncing between gyms to find the right fit for his career and landed at Xtreme Couture, where he linked up with Strickland and head coach Eric Nicksick. Cameras even caught them training together, and the chemistry looked solid. That surface-level sportmanship did not survive the pressure of competing in the same weight class.
Tension grew when Strickland later suggested he used to dominate Chimaev in training. Strickland’s outspokenness and controversial behavior have made him an unpopular figure in MMA circles.
“We had a group chat for our gym, there was one guy from Chechnya in it and (Strickland) wrote something like, ‘I thought all Chechens are strong?’ And I wrote him back, ‘You’re an American chicken, I’ll beat you up.’ He later said that I misunderstood him, that’s all that really happened,” Chimaev explained. “I spoke English badly at that time and I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened, he said something about Chechnya or something, so I immediately attacked him just in case.”
Chimaev framed the episode as a clash born from pride, translation gaps, and typical gym bravado that quickly escalated. The image of Strickland walking the gym with a gun cast the relationship in a new, darker light and positioned Chimaev as a fighter who faced more than just opponents inside the cage.
Strickland’s suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission after a post-fight brawl at a Tuff-N-Uff event added fuel to the narrative that he courts controversy both in and out of competition. Meanwhile, Khamzat Chimaev’s rise in the UFC has continued to draw attention, and this feud only keeps him in headlines.
