Teammate: Khamzat Chimaev's entourage won't 'jeopardize' UFC 328 fight

Khamzat Chimaev's team has been explicitly told not to do anything that would put Saturday's UFC 328 title fight vs. Sean Strickland at risk.

That's according to middleweight contender Brendan Allen, who joined Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) for the final three weeks of training camp, and was there for his May 1 birthday sendoff dinner before leaving to Newark, N.J., where he will put his belt on the line against Strickland (30-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) in the UFC 328 headliner at Prudential Center (Paramount+).

There is significant tension between Chimaev and Strickland going into fight week, with threats of armed violence from Strickland, who said he would "shoot" the champion and his team if they jumped him. Allen said nothing of that sort would happen unprovoked and revealed a clear message was sent from the coaches about any fight week antics that could prevent the anticipated title fight from happening.

"Khamzat's team, nor anyone on it that's part of his entourage or whatever you want to call it, is going to jeopardize that opportunity," Allen told MMA Junkie. "I promise you that nobody is going to do anything to jeopardize it. Now if someone approaches them and tries to put hands on them, hey, they're not responsible for that. But as far as them initiating and starting a problem, I highly doubt that happens. There will be a lot of repercussions for anyone who does that outside of UFC or anything like that.

"I highly doubt you see anything come from their side. Everyone knows what's at stake and like the coaches said: If you care about Khamzat, you won't do anything fight week. You'll let everything be and let Khamzat handle the job how he's going to handle it come fight night."

Allen (26-7 MMA, 14-4 UFC) won't be part of Chimaev's crew in the days leading up to UFC 328 as he returned to Chicago to train for his upcoming June 6 bout with Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC Fight Night 278. However, he did spend enough time around the champion and his more longterm team members to get an understanding of the situation.

Chimaev and everyone around him understand that Strickland is trying to create chaos by stirring up emotions, and there's no intention to give in.