UFC 310 was interrupted by two big announcements about an upcoming pay-per-view card.
It was initially revealed that a strawweight title bout between Zhang Weili and Tatiana Suarez would be the co-main event at UFC 312, which is due to take place at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on February 9.
Soon after, Jon Anik confirmed that Dricus du Plessis vs Sean Strickland 2 will headline the card.
Now it is clear why Khamzat Chimaev has been sending Strickland threatening social media messages.
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Khamzat Chimaev thought he’d earned middleweight title shot
Chimaev thought his sickening submission win over Robert Whittaker was enough to skip the queue at 185lbs.
Strickland suffered a razor-thin split decision loss when he first fought Du Plessis at UFC 297 in January.
The former champion beat Paulo Costa before announcing he’s waiting out for a title shot rematch.
That plan almost backfired when Du Plessis declared his preference to face Chimaev after watching him shatter Whittaker’s teeth at UFC 308 in October.
In recent days, ‘Borz’ has bizarrely focused his energy on Strickland. First, he sent the American a picture of him holding a gun, with the caption: “Where are you?”
Chimaev followed that up with another image of the pair standing together after a training session.
“It’s ok bro haha,” he wrote to confuse fans further.
The UFC 312 main event seems to have been what caused Chimaev to hit out at Strickland.
It appears he will have to wait until late-2025 before he finally gets a shot at UFC gold.
Sean Strickland made to eat his words
Strickland was adamant that he would not travel to Australia to rematch Du Plessis.
He tweeted in October: “UFC event planning; ‘I have a great idea, let’s send Sean to go fight for a championship in foreign country where the government absolutely hates him’.
“UFC are you f***ing with me or are you trying to tell me you want me to spread freedom?! I wonder at times….”
A mother later, he said: “I’m not fighting in Australia. We’re thinking Vegas in March.
“I have love for the Aussies. BUT I don’t think your government likes me… Which I take as a compliment. Hate speech isn’t real and I’ll always speak up for my kangaroo homies! FREEDOM!”
Strickland was wildly popular with fans when he last fought in Australia. The 33-year-old beat Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 in September 2023, but he believes his outlandish antics and interviews angered government officials, who had paid for a tourism package that included a UFC pay-per-view.