It’s UFC 328 fight week.
That means multiple opportunities for event headliners Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland to face off ahead of their five-round title fight on Sat. night (May 9, 2026) at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. But the promotion may pull the plug on fight week staredowns after “Borz” and “Tarzan” exchanged death threats in an attempt to “out-crazy each other.”
“I doubt they’ll have face offs,” former UFC champion and current fight night commentator Dominick Cruz
told MMA Junkie. “If they’re saying that, why would you have a face off? Why would you even take the risk if you’re Dana (White) with these two guys? Kind of like ‘DC’ and Jones and you could have another one of those situations where they just scrap and knock everything off the table. I don’t think they’re faking, I think they’re just talking crazy because they’re making sure you know: Don’t test me. That’s what’s been put out. ‘Don’t test me or I’ll do it.’ And UFC will say, ‘Okay, we’re going to listen. Bring the security out.’”
Cruz is referring to the UFC 178 media day between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier back in summer 2014 when contact was made and all hell broke loose (watch the replay here). UFC later instituted a ban on physical exchanges during staredowns to prevent another situation like this April 2021 disaster.
That ban has yet to be enforced.
“I think this is just fight week pressure and they both have an image to uphold, and both of them are going to flex bigger than the other one because that’s the personality they’re trying to bring,” Cruz said. “They can’t start being nice now. They’ve got to be the crazy guys. And now they’re going to out-crazy each other to see who’s tougher. That’s how I see it. Like, ‘No, I’m crazier than you, you can’t be crazier than me because I’ve already shown you how crazy I am.’ It’s just a show to me. But at the same time, the nerves of the fight going to the death is real. Two things can be true at the same time.”
As Cruz said, Khamzat and Strickland want to see who’s tougher. Isn’t that what the cage is for?
