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We’re beginning to learn more about the scramble to get a replacement for Paulo Costa at UFC 294.
Eleven days before UFC 294, Kamaru Usman shocked the MMA world when he took a short-notice fight against Khamzat Chimaev, but apparently, he wasn’t the UFC’s first choice for the fight.
According to a report by ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland was offered the fight in Abu Dhabi and turned it down because it was right after he had beaten Israel Adesanya in Australia.
Via ESPN
New UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland was called, sources said, and offered the fight against Chimaev. However, it was just about a week after he beat Israel Adesanya to win the title in Australia and the timing did not make sense for him.
Strickland has been critical of the Usman-Chimaev matchup and says Usman is taking the lopsided fight for a paycheck.
‘They said, hey Usman here’s a couple million, you want to this fight we’ll give it to you and he said I can’t say no, I’m gonna do it”
“You have Chimaev, who has been training his a– off, and bulking up for middleweight and then you have Usman, who’s like I’m going to take this fight for a paycheck…To me this is kind of a bulls— fight, and they just needed to fill a seat, I got Chimaev.”
@shredderbailey Sean Strickland gives his thoughts on the co-main event at UFC 294 between Kamaru Usman and Khamzat Chimaev, via Sean Strickland’s youtube channel #mmafighter #danawhite #khamzatchimaev #kamaruusman
UFC CEO Dana White has already stated the winner of the Usman-Chimaev fight will be granted a middleweight title fight against Strickland.