Bad blood? Still boiling.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Sean Strickland scored his first finish in nearly three years, stopping surging contender Anthony Hernandez in the UFC Houston main event last night (Sat., Feb. 21, 2026) inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas (watch highlights).
After the statement win, Strickland didn’t waste time turning his attention toward reigning Middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, pushing forward an ugly feud that has been boiling for years.
“If Chimaev gets off the bench. I’d like to piece that little Chechen whore,” Strickland said in the cage. “You never know with him. You never know with that guy, but that’s what I want.”
Watch the callout below:
It didn’t take long for Chimaev to fire back via social media.
“Habibi calm down, I destroyed the guy who beat you twice,” Chimaev wrote. “American b-tch.”
It’s a pointed response. Dricus du Plessis defeated Strickland in back-to-back fights, while Chimaev later dominated du Plessis to capture the UFC Middleweight title (watch highlights). MMA math isn’t perfect — but it certainly makes for quality trash talk.
The animosity between Strickland and Chimaev runs deeper than rankings. The two previously sparred at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Nevada, and both men have offered conflicting accounts of how those sessions played out. Since then, they’ve traded barbs through interviews and social media.
With the win over Hernandez, widely considered a dark horse in the division, Strickland may have positioned himself back into title contention. A fight with Chimaev could materialize sooner rather than later, potentially leapfrogging contenders like Nassourdine Imavov, whom Strickland defeated on short notice, off the couch in 2023.
Of course, whether the UFC brass reward him with a title shot remains to be seen — especially given the fallout from his controversial UFC Houston media day comments earlier in the week.
One thing is certain: this rivalry isn’t cooling off anytime soon.
