Strickland defeats Chimaev by split decision to become new UFC middleweight champion

Sean Strickland has defeated Hamzat Chimaev by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) to become the new UFC middleweight champion. The analyst expressed confusion about what happened to Chimaev in the middle of the second round when he suddenly fell to his back, though Chimaev fought afterward in a way that didn't suggest he had suffered an injury. Chimaev appeared to conserve energy in the third round and didn't pursue wrestling at all. The analyst noted that Chimaev did not approach this fight as well-prepared functionally as he was for his bout with Du Plessis, possibly due to issues with his weight cut. Everything was going well for Chimaev initially, with 4 minutes and 44 seconds of control time in the first round, making the second-round incident particularly puzzling.