Sean Strickland slams Chimaev by exposing behind-the-scenes details of his training at Xtreme Couture.

Sean Strickland Promotes UFC event. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook/UFC

Sean Strickland He didn't mince words when describing the behavior of Khamzat Shimaev, his former training partner. The American, who returned to winning ways at UFC Houston, last Saturday (21), in Texas (USA), took advantage of the space in the post-event press conference to attack his Russian rival.

In an interview at the post-UFC Houston press conference, 'Tarzan' opened up about Chimaev's behavior during training sessions at 'Xtreme Couture' in Las Vegas (USA), the gym where they trained together. The American revealed that his rival would seek out the smallest and weakest athlete to train with and even stated that he would only run away and hide.

“I made him quit training. I'll tell you about that jerk… Chimaev would come into the gym and pick the smallest and weakest guy. He'd say, 'He looks like my opponent.' He wants Jiri at 93 kg, even though he's not a champion. He just runs away and hides, he did that when he trained with us and he's doing the same thing in this weight class,” he said. Sean Strickland at the post-UFC Houston press conference.

See too

UFC legend praises Sean Strickland's performance at UFC Houston and previews his upcoming fight with Khamzat Chimaev.

Michel Pereira claims he would beat Anthony Hernandez in a rematch at UFC: 'It's not all that great'

Outrage! Fans criticize UFC and Paramount for 'censoring' Sean Strickland at press conference; see the reactions.

For your information, Strickland and Chimaev, besides having trained together at 'Xtreme Couture', once had a good relationship. However, they have been publicly attacking each other recently, and their relationship, which was good, has deteriorated.

Will Khamzat Chimaev move up a category?

The Chechen fighter has already made it clear that he wants to move up to light heavyweight (up to 93 kg), however, Dana White, the organization's president, is not convinced that Chimaev deserves an immediate opportunity to pursue his second belt in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

In a press conference following UFC Houston, The organization's president said he prefers to see the middleweight champion (up to 83,9 kg) make at least one title defense before considering a change..

“I’d like to see him defend the title before talking about changing weight classes. Are you going to keep moving up weight divisions without defending it?”, said Dana White.