We were perhaps a positive paternity test away from Thursday’s UFC 328 press conference turning into an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show,” yet even there we heard a lot of talk about daddies. Khamzat Chimaev constantly brought up Sean Strickland’s old man as a measure of mental warfare, and it was hard to tell if it was a sore subject or not but for all the fire-backs of Chimaev being a “whore.”
There were plots and subplots in play, inside stories and side-swipes and enough slurs to offend the entire galaxy of groups. At one point, somebody asked UFC CEO Dana White if he still hated this kind of thing. You know, when bad blood becomes so dark and personal that pretty soon things start getting a little homicidal. He said the feud is definitely among the top-three heated rivalries he’s seen in his 25 years in the gig.
So this is what it’s like to pit Sean Strickland against Khamzat Chimaev in a title fight …
There were security guards standing alert in case of extracurriculars. In case of sudden tumult. In case Strickland had something strapped to his ankle, a little Saturday night special, or a shiv.
He didn’t. But he did have words. Words like “f**,” which he lobbed the UFC middleweight champion’s way with relish, and “third world” and “coward” and “goatf***er.” We heard more about the dry-humping of legs than what can be considered civilized, and if it were a drinking game to do a shot every time Chimavev said “shut up, b****,” we’d all be having our stomachs pumped.
When asked if he would let his principles square off at the end of the presser, as has always been the custom, White said “absolutely” he would. Why the hell not?
“According to my therapist, I’m a sociopath, so why would I not want to have a faceoff here today?” he said, alluding to Strickland calling White a sociopath last week. After he said it, Strickland smiled so big you could almost see the yearning soul trapped in a hell-raising human body. The chants of “U.S.A.” in Newark egged Strickland on, yet when Chimaev said the Americans were on his side, there was a complex mix of boos and cheers that suggested he might be right.
It's rare you get two fighters so worked up in the same room, especially when it’s tough to assign the villain. Is it Chimaev, who hangs with the warlord Ramzan Kadyrov (and on occasion that freaking Hasbulla), trying the Freudian tack to get under Strickland’s skin? Or is it Strickland, who generally offends everybody (and therefore speaks to so many)?
In some ways, it doesn’t matter in the slightest because a fight is a fight, and a little hatred in the air makes for stronger rooting interests. Strickland is the kind of fighter that has certain fed-up fans heading for the exits, seeing the game as nothing more than a platform for warped ideas and ideologies. Yet those people can barely get out but for the onrush of those flooding in to get a better look. The views for the press conference were eight times higher than those of UFC 327, which pitted Jiri Prochazka against the fangless Carlos Ulberg.
For fights, the snuffier we can get, the better. Sometimes getting rid of the sanctimony is the surest way to discover that there’s some fun to be had if we’re not overthinking things. Sometimes the sport needs an orgy to remember why guilt exists in the first place. Sometimes we need a reminder that MMA is where inhibitions go to die.
That’s what this is.
When the fight is alive with emotion, it hits a sweet spot for fan interest. We can get on our high horses about what’s being said, yet we aren’t turning to Strickland and Chimaev for moral direction or for intellectual stimulation (and if you are, God help you). The deep feeling of a conflict is what the game covets, the energy to care, and for this one, we have it. Strickland doesn’t like Chimaev and Chimaev doesn’t like Strickland, and all the daddy talk can’t help but ratchet things up.
Strickland said that Kadyrov is Khamzat’s father. Chimaev said that he is Strickland’s daddy, which is his way of planting the idea that he is Strickland’s original boogeyman. Back to the original hurt. He is the need for therapy. He is the bad memory. He is the reason for all the trauma and hate. Darkness incarnated.
If Strickland took any of it to heart, it was hard to tell. He called Chimaev a goatf***er to drown out the deeper meanings. He pointed out that he was in a motorcycle accident, which couldn’t stop him from rising to the top of the sport, while Chimaev nearly retired from “the common cold.”
“You had a cough and you quit this f***ing sport,” he told Chimaev, touching on his bout with Covid.
“Shut up, b****,” Chimeav shot back.
When they did face off, of course Chimaev kicked Strickland. We weren’t going to get to fight night without an incident. The biggest conversation coming out was who got under whose skin more, and which of the two’s emotions got the better of them. The emotion matters.
Now the only thing left to do is fight, and you know what? For anyone who’s been hitting snooze on MMA of late, this one actually feels like a fight.
