Every week, I put out a Mailbag prompt on The Feed, and this week, but over the past few weeks, there’s been a question in there that I decided to break out into its own thing, because I don’t want the Mailbag to be 4,000 words. This is one of those.
Last Saturday, Sean Strickland demolished Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Houston, finishing him in the third round. Immediately afterward, Strickland called for a shot at middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, as the two have been beefing over social media for some time. This, of course, did not sit well with Nassourdine Imavov, who is currently on a five-fight win streak and seemed to be next in line, prompting the debate: Who should get the first shot at Chimaev?
Who do you want to see get next middleweight title shot? We know Imavov has done enough to earn it but after Stricklands performance and way he’ll hype the fight does anyone actually want to see Imavov next?
Like it or not Khamzat/Strickland is now the most interesting and biggest fight you can make at 185 pounds. Is the only thing that can derail Strickland fact that he’s going at UFC’s broadcasting partner? You can say alot of stuff in this sport but start talking about UFC’s fighter pay and their broadcast partner/sponsors and things start to get iffy for you.
I want to be super clear about three things: 1) Imavov should get the next middleweight title shot. 2) That’s not happening. Strickland is getting it. 3) The UFC broadcasting partner has as much say in this as you or I do. I’m sure Paramount would rather Strickland not say half the things he does, but when did that ever matter at ESPN before?
We live in an era of MMA (well, UFC, but for all intents and purposes, those two things are interchangeable at this point) where merit does not matter anymore. To be frank, we’ve been traveling down this road for years — basically since Conor McGregor arose — but now the UFC has fully bought in to the idea that deserves got nothing to do with it.
In January, Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett fought for an interim lightweight title, despite Arman Tsarukyan existing. Earlier this month, Diego Lopes got to rematch Alexander Volkanovski despite losing to him convincingly 10 months prior, and with multiple more deserving challengers in position. This is the world we live in now, where notoriety and excitement mean more than accomplishment. And while ultimately the lack of meaning anymore makes a lot of these fights feel like empty calories, screw it, let’s embrace our inner degenerate and just eat cake for breakfast.
Full respect to Imavov, who is a great fighter and has massively overachieved compared to my expectations for him, but the man has one of those styles that makes him hard to remember, like a half-dreamt nightmare after an evening filled with binge-drinking. And it’s not like Imavov has an out-sized personality to draw people in. If Imavov somehow got the shot against Chimaev, it would be an elite matchup of high-level fighters that most people wouldn’t care about, and likely results in Chimaev sitting on Imavov for 25 minutes. There’s nothing wrong with that, but probably not much to remember either.
Whereas with Strickland, he may be a nightmare in many respects, but he’s one of the UFC’s most proven attention-getters. Sure, he gets attention in the way a screaming toddler in an airplane does, but it’s attention nonetheless. Give these guys a few months of chirping back and forth, and come fight time, the whole world will want to tune in. It’s probably the biggest fight the UFC can make right now, excluding Conor McGregor or champ-champ fights. And honestly, that’s fun. It’s fun to be part of big fights that permeate culture. It’s fun to have a unifying shared experience that people might talk about outside of The Feed or internet forums.
And on top of that, I think the fight is better.
No doubt about it, Imavov deserves to fight Chimaev because you never know what can happen in a fight, but on paper, that looks like a win for Chimaev. Strickland though? The former middleweight champion has the exact sort of defense-first style that might be hugely problematic for Chimaev (imagine, Strickland being a good kind of problematic for once!) Strickland is a strong defensive wrestler, jabs and works the body a ton, and tends to get better as the fight rolls on, all things that might give Chimaev trouble.
So, our options are simple: the UFC does the right thing and gives us a rock-solid fight that won’t get people all that interested, or the UFC does the thing it’s been doing and gives us a fascinating style matchup that will break contain to the broader fight fan base.
I know which one I should be rooting for, but at this point, I simply can’t care anymore. Chimaev vs. Strickland is coming, and it’s going to be combustible and volatile in all the ways, good and bad. Stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.
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