Strickland defeats Chimaev by split decision to win UFC middleweight title

Sean Strickland defeated Khamzat Chimaev via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) to become the new UFC middleweight champion at UFC 328. The post author notes the biggest mystery of the fight was what happened to Chimaev in the middle of the second round when he suddenly fell to his back, though he didn't appear injured afterward. Chimaev appeared to conserve energy in the third round and avoided grappling exchanges entirely. The analysis suggests Chimaev wasn't as well-prepared functionally as he was for his bout with Du Plessis, possibly due to weight cut issues. Everything was going well for Chimaev with 4 minutes and 44 seconds of control time in the first round before something went wrong in round two.