UFC 328 fight card: Five biggest storylines to follow in Newark
A pair of world titles can be at stake on Saturday, together with one of many hottest feuds in current reminiscence in the principle occasion, when UFC 328 takes place contained in the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Unbeaten middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev will make his first title protection towards bitter rival and former beltholder Sean Strickland in the headliner. In the co-main occasion, Joshua Van will make the primary protection of his flyweight title towards streaking contender Tatsuro (*328*).
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As we draw nearer to this weekend’s occasion, let’s check out the biggest storylines surrounding UFC 328.
1. Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland actually, actually don’t love one another
What started as a disagreement contained in the Extreme Couture health club in Las Vegas, the place Strickland accused visiting Chimaev of being a bully to his sparring companions, has changed into one of many hottest blood feuds in current UFC title historical past. Chimaev will put his 15-0 document and middleweight title at stake in his first fight since absolutely demolishing Dricus du Plessis to win the belt final August. And to recommend that UFC is doing the proper transfer by rising its safety element forward of Saturday can be an understatement. The warmth right here is actual — very actual — and has even escalated to doubtlessly harmful ranges after Strickland, throughout a half scrum final week amid coaching camp, threatened he would shoot Chimaev and his group in the event that they confronted him throughout fight week. The brash Strickland (30-7) has repeatedly known as Chimaev a “weak man” and hasn’t let a current interview go by with out degrading the native of Russia on nearly each matter. UFC is anticipating to restrict any faceoffs or potential interactions between the 2 to Friday’s ceremonial weigh in. To paraphrase the late WWE Hall of Famer Gorilla Monsoon, the stress hovering above the Octagon this weekend can be so thick, you possibly can reduce it with a knife.
2. If Strickland cannot gradual Chimaev, are there any middleweights who can?
That’s the query that has been thrown by followers and critics alike of late given Chimaev’s chic grappling expertise and the imply streak in which he inflicts floor and pound. If there was anybody at 185 kilos in the aftermath of Chimaev’s title win final 12 months who most people thought had the bottom recreation and/or engine to match Chimaev, the solutions would’ve been Reiner de Ridder and Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez. But RDR suffered a pair of defeats and has subsequently moved up to gentle heavyweight. Hernandez, in the meantime, was completely dominated in a shocking third-round TKO defeat to Strickland that revived the 35-year-old former champion’s title hopes. Strickland has stopped 76% of takedowns over his UFC profession and possesses loads of intangibles like cardio, protection and a willingness to fight in the pocket (regardless of being a 4-to-1 betting underdog) to doubtlessly give Chimaev points. Chimaev, who averages greater than 5 takedowns per quarter-hour, is recent off dominating du Plessis, the previous champion who twice defeated Strickland in title bouts over the past two years. But MMA math isn’t excellent and Strickland simply might need the most effective talent set and elegance out there to give pulling the upset over such a dominant champion a strive.
3. The youth motion at males’s flyweight is upon us
While it wasn’t probably the most convincing 125-pound title win final December, when Joshua Van defending champion Alexandre Pantoja to the canvas simply 26 seconds into the fight to trigger a badly dislocated elbow, the 24-year-old native of Myanmar will let you know himself that the TKO win was the results of one thing he triggered. And the fallout of the victory has sparked an attention-grabbing youth motion atop the division. With the 36-year-old Pantoja nonetheless recovering from damage, Van (16-2) will make his first title protection on Saturday towards 26-year-old Japanese finisher Tatsuro (*328*) (18-1) in what is predicted to be an thrilling and fast-paced bout. In current years, the division has been dominated by veteran champions like Pantoja, Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo. But the fast emergence of each Van and (*328*), alongside 26-year-old London native Lone’er Kavanagh, who upset Moreno in February on brief discover, have created a brilliant future at flyweight. And that future seems to be very a lot proper now.
4. Tatsuro (*328*) is one win away from making Japanese MMA historical past
For a rustic like Japan that’s so rooted in martial arts lore and extensively thought-about to be one of many birthplaces of MMA, the truth that the “Land of the Rising Sun” has but to produce a single UFC champion stays an nearly unthinkable trivia footnote. In reality, in the early 2000s, Japan served because the epicenter of the game behind the theatrical PRIDE promotion, which nonetheless holds the game’s world attendance document of 91,107 for a fight card at Tokyo National Stadium in 2002. Both Kazushi Sakuraba and Kenichi Yamamoto gained four-man tournaments promoted by UFC in the late Nineties however by no means a divisional title. Yamamoto later grew to become one among seven Japanese-born fighters to problem for UFC titles unsuccessfully, on an inventory that features present 125-pound fighters Kyoji Horiguchi (2015) and Kai Asukara (2024). But (*328*), who’s 8-1 contained in the Octagon since making his UFC debut in 2022, has a wonderful shot at turning into the primary as he enters as a slight betting favourite towards the defending champion Van. Taira’s lone UFC defeat was by break up choice to Brandon Royval in 2024 and the native of Okinawa is recent off a stoppage over the previous two-time champion Moreno.
5. A top-five heavyweight conflict might have higher title implications
Despite all the uncertainty surrounding the heavyweight title image, together with champion Tom Aspinall’s restoration from double eye surgical procedure and the UFC’s refusal to ebook Jon Jones, it might be arduous to deny the winner of Saturday’s Alexander Volkov and Waldo Cortes-Acosta a shot on the belt. The No. 2-ranked Volkov (39-11) has gained 5 of his final six fights, together with a split-decision loss to Ciryl Gane in 2024 that everybody (together with UFC CEO Dana White) thought was a theft. Meanwhile, No. 4 Cortes-Acosta (17-2) has turn into one of many division’s brilliant spots as a shock contender following an 8-1 stretch since 2023. Cortes-Acosta has reduce to the top of the category by staying busy as he enters his eighth fight of the final 14 months, in search of his fourth straight win since November. With Aspinall’s return date nonetheless unknown, UFC will promote an interim heavyweight title bout on the White House in June between Gane and former two-division champion Alex Pereira. That might open up an enormous alternative for the winner this weekend.
