Khamzat Chimaev UFC 328 title defence announced as part of huge full schedule before White House card

Khamzat Chimaev will face Sean Strickland at UFC 328 as part of a bumper billing before the White House card.

White recently confirmed the full card for the historic White House event in June, which will be headlined by Ilia Topuria’s showdown with Justin Gaethje.

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It meant it became clearer who could feature beforehand and gave him the position to announce his nine-fight slate which will precede the famous night.

Last night alongside UFC legend Michael Bisping, White announced the remainder of the main events across April, May and June which will take place before the event.

The headline of the entire schedule will see Chimaev defend his middleweight title in a blockbuster match-up with Strickland on May 9.

It is a huge showdown, given the pair have traded verbal barbs ever since their famous sparring session nine years ago.

Strickland has claimed he made Chimaev quit, and will hope to reinforce his bold claim in a full Octagon encounter, with the latter’s belt at stake.

Victory for ‘Borz’ will cement his name as champion, while Strickland will be ambitious hoping to reach the top again.

The event sees Jan Blachowicz, Waldo Cortes Acosta, Sean Brady all feature, with UFC long-serving icon Jeremy Stephens back in action.

UFC 328 will be the final numbered event before the White House card for now, with a host of other fight nights also being announced.

Aljamain Sterling and Arnold Allen will headline separate fight nights late in April and early May before the bill.

UFC announced fights before White House card

Las Vegas on April 25
Aljamain Sterling vs Youssef Zalal

UFC Perth on May 2nd

Jack Della Madallena vs Carlos Prates
Beneil Dariush vs. Quillan Salkilld

UFC 328 on May 9
Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland
Alexander Volkov vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Jan Blachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov 2
King Green vs. Jeremy Stephens

UFC Vegas 117 on May 16
Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael Costa

UFC Macau on May 30
Song Yadong vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
Mingyang Zhang vs. Alonzo Menifield
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tallison Teixeira

UFC Vegas 118 on Jun. 6
Belal Muhammad vs. Gabriel Bonfim

Before Arnold Allen, Song Yadong and Belal Muhammad will also feature in main events on fight night cards before the build-up to the White House card begins.

Chimaev vs Strickland – the history behind the bout

Chimaev won the title in emphatic fashion outpointing Dricus Du Plessis last August, and has been looking to pencil in his next outing ever since.

For Strickland after losing the belt to Du Plessis, he is now back to winning ways after stopping Anthony Hernandez, and his self-belief has never left him.

The American accused Chimaev of running from him previously, and believed that was purely down to their duel in training.

But now with the fight on the cards, the brash American is likely to divulge it all again.

He said: “I made him quit in training. Witnesses are in the audience.

“We were doing positional grappling and he starts on my back and it was the first round and I let him f***ing choke me because no one gives a f***.

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“Every time Chimaev would walk in the gym he would pick the smallest, lowest level pro and say ‘he looks like my opponent’.

“You’re beating the f*** out of him, this is a true story and you can ask my whole team, Chimaev is a bully.

“If you notice what he does in the division is he just runs and f***ing hides. He wants to go to 205lb and fight Jiri. You’re the f***ing champ, dude.

“You just run and hide. You did it when you trained with us and you’re doing it with the whole division.”

UFC Schedule

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s UFC schedule.