"He's not that good on the ground" - Ex-UFC champ issues bold preview for potential Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland fight 

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold recently shared his thoughts on a potential Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland clash. Rockhold claimed that Strickland could prove to be Chimaev's "toughest test" so far.

Chimaev dominantly defeated Dricus du Plessis via unanimous decision at UFC 319 in August to become the new middleweight king. In the aftermath, Strickland expressed a keen desire to fight Chimaev for the title and boldly claimed that he was the only one who could beat the Chechen-born grappling maestro. It's worth noting that Chimaev and Strickland have trained together in the past.

In an appearance on the JAXXON Podcast, Rockhold backed Strickland to beat Chimaev and explained why he believed 'Tarzan' would pose problems for the undefeated grappling phenom:

"I hate to say it, but Strickland should win a fight, and he’s probably the toughest test for [Chimaev]. I'm not a fan, but [Strickland] is annoyingly hard to hold down. He’s not that good on the ground, but he can get up, and that’s the biggest thing with Khamzat, he cannot stay [down]... Khamzat has got to get comfortable on his feet. If he can’t keep a guy down, it could be tough."

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Sean Strickland expresses keen desire to fight Khamzat Chimaev to settle "personal vendetta"

Last month, Sean Strickland went nuclear on Khamzat Chimaev and issued an ice-cold callout for the reigning middleweight king.

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Strickland hoped to get booked for a title eliminator fight against Anthony Hernandez and said:

"I want to fight Chimaev. And you know, a lot of it feels like a personal vendetta because I'm the only f**king one that beats Chimaev. Chimaev knows this. His camp knows this. Everybody f**king knows this, dude. I'm the only one that f**king beats you. I've wrestled with all the guys that he's going to fight, and he's just going to f**king steamroll them."

He continued:

"I can't stand f**king Chimaev. I think what annoys me about Chimaev, there's nobody that could beat him, you know, as like I've trained with all the guys he's going to fight. I've trained with Chimaev." [06:45 of the MMA Junkie interview]

Edited by Nishant Zende.