Khamzat Chimaev alleges Sean Strickland brought a gun to the gym as UFC feud kicked off

UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev made some wild accusations against Sean Strickland stemming from their past training sessions.

Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland isn’t known to have many allies in Mixed Martial Arts due to his controversial behavior in and out of the cage. Strickland is currently serving a suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission stemming from a post-fight brawl at a Tuff-N-Uff event in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Earlier in their careers, Strickland and current UFC middleweight titleholder Khamzat Chimaev were frequent training partners at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. But while their time training together was short-lived, Chimaev and Strickland have shared different takes on how their training sessions played out.

Strickland has accused Chimaev of being a bad teammate and purposely attempting to beat up fighters of lesser experience. Not only did Chimaev deny Strickland’s allegations, but made some eye-opening claims about how their feud began.

Khamzat Chimaev shares wild story about what allegedly kicked off Sean Strickland beef

In a recent appearance on the Badaev Podcast, Chimaev explained the origins of his feud with the former UFC middleweight champion.

“I don’t know. When we used to train together, he was normal. Well, one time I got angry with him and the next day he was walking around the gym with a gun, he thought I’d attack him,” Chimaev said of Strickland.

“We had a group chat for our gym, there was one guy from Chechnya in it and (Strickland) wrote something like, ‘I thought all Chechen’s are strong?’ And I wrote him back, ‘You’re an American chicken, I’ll beat you up.’

“He later said that I misunderstood him, that’s all that really happened,” Chimaev continued. “I spoke English badly at that time and I couldn’t tell you exactly what happened, he said something about Chechnya or something, so I immediately attacked him just in case.” (h/t Bloody Elbow)