Sean Strickland, Khamzat Chimaev cry foul as training footage leaked

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – As UFC 328 has neared, the trash talk between its headlining fighters has expanded into numerous territories ranging from religious insults to death threats.

Perhaps the most tamer, traditional angle of the rivalry between Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland, however, revolves around past sparring the two did together at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.

Each man has been critical of the other, with Chimaev laughing off Strickland's skills, and Strickland claiming Chimaev preferred working with weaker fighters in the gym.

However, a 26-second clip leaked Tuesday by Chimaev has made elevated the unfriendly banter further. The clip shows Chimaev and Strickland practicing together, though nothing too significant happens in the exchanges.

Despite the video seems unremarkable to the outside eye, it clearly struck a nerve with Strickland, who said Wednesday he didn't even know the footage existed until he saw it online.

"That's what I'm talking about," Strickland told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight news conference. "The guy is just a little f*cking rat, dude. I didn't even know we were filming. Those were warm-up rounds. Dude, you're just a weak man. He's just a weak, weak man. ... It's also like, what is the point? We were light sparring. Those shorts were a little questionable on my part, but they were Amazon. It was a bad angle, bad angle. I like women and he likes goats. I win there."

Strickland indicated the two only sparred on one occasions, but it was a three-round session. He doubled-down on his claim that Chimaev then went and found worse fighters to beat up on.

"No we've only sparred once," Strickland said. "I think we did a three-round spar. We only sparred once. I kept telling you this. When I go to a gym, I want to spar the best guys. I want to spar him. But he'd always go beat up the lower-level guys."

Chimaev had the privilege of getting the last word in Wednesday, though it almost certainly won't be the final one of the week.

With a big grin on his face, Chimaev recalled Strickland pleading with Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick about the session's intensity levels – a detail he hadn't previously revealed.

"I just found old videos of some stuff and just posted it," Chimaev said. "Because he's saying I only spar weak people. In the video, we sparred easy. It was tough-sparring. It wasn't 100 percent like usually I do, because he said he didn't want to spar hard. When I started to hit hard, he's like, 'Coach Eric, he's starting to punch hard.' He has some problems with his coach Eric, too, because I was punching him hard. He was always calling him like, 'Can you stop this guy?' But this guy lies so much, brother. It's crazy. Ask the people whose been in the gym. Ask his friends if this is real. They are going to answer for that."