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

Sean Strickland defeated Khamzat 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 as if he hadn't sustained an injury. In the third round, Chimaev appeared to conserve energy and avoided grappling entirely. Chimaev did not appear as well-conditioned functionally for this fight as he was for his bout with Dricus Du Plessis, possibly due to the 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 all the more puzzling.