Coach: Sean Strickland staying 'calm and cool' critical vs. Khamzat Chimaev

There is one advantage Strickland will have h (30-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) heading into UFC 328 – and that's a coach who has stood in front of Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) and held pads for him. Back in 2022, Nicksick welcomed Chimaev to Xtreme Couture, where he spent time training with Strickland. Nicksick remembers it well and has used the knowledge gained from that period in preparation for UFC 328.

"He's very good at blending his level changes into his striking and his wrestling, and I think that, to me, is something you have to be very aware of," Nicksick said. "Guys tend to underhook and when you underhook, you're automatically making an attachment. You're inviting him to go chest to chest with you. So there's a couple of layers of defense that I think we have to get ahead of. … Then you also can't be committed to dropping underhooks because that's gonna set up his overhand without you allowing yourself to have a lead-arm defense. There's a lot of things I think we have to make sure we're shoring up, and then also just the pace and the cardio that we're expecting him to be able to have."

UFC 328 will mark Strickland's fourth title fight in the past three years and the second time he'll try to reclaim the belt. In some ways, it feels like the first time when he claimed the title from Israel Adesanya in September 2023 at UFC 293. But not exactly.

"As much as we were talking about the important of the title (against Adesanya), in this particular fight, the title is kind of a byproduct," Nicksick said. "It just feels like we're fighting Khamzat, and if we win, luckily this title happens to be there. But it's more about bragging rights almost. It feels like a different connotation to me."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 328: Coach opens up on keys to Sean Strickland success