Dana White says the UFC will keep Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland apart during UFC 328 fight week, with no pre-fight faceoff and law enforcement involved in the security plan. The event is scheduled for May 9 in New Jersey.
White said the promotion is planning to “beef up security in every way, shape and form possible” for the week leading into the middleweight title fight, adding that the UFC does not want the two fighters anywhere near each other. He said the company will not stage a faceoff and will put Chimaev and Strickland in separate hotels.
“No bullshit, we’re going to beef up security and law enforcement and everything. All of it. Hotels, bumping into each other, all that [kind of stuff],” White said. He also made clear that the UFC has already decided against bringing them together in front of cameras, saying, “I hope somebody told them [that isn’t happening],” and then, “Because that is the case. Because that is a fact.”
The move fits a pattern the UFC knows well. In past rivalries, tensions have spilled beyond the stage, from Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz launching full soda cans at each other at a pre-fight press conference to the promotion later emptying cans placed on stage to prevent another incident. McGregor also attacked a bus filled with fighters in 2018 in an attempt to reach Khabib Nurmagomedov, and after beating McGregor, Nurmagomedov leapt over the cage and attacked Dillon Danis.
Strickland has his own history of chasing confrontation. Before fighting Dricus du Plessis, he dove over several rows of fans and fighters in an attempt to get to him. That is why White said the UFC is treating this fight week as a security problem as much as a sporting one. The question now is not whether the promotion expects trouble, but whether the extra layers around the fighters will be enough to prevent it.
