Two Weeks Before Fighting Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Strickland Begs UFC Not to Sign His Sparring Partner

Two weeks out from his middleweight title shot against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328, Sean Strickland's biggest public concern, somehow, is a different fighter. Strickland posted a video this week begging the UFC not to sign Johnny Eblen — the former Bellator middleweight champion,

Two weeks out from his middleweight title shot against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328, Sean Strickland's biggest public concern, somehow, is a different fighter.

Strickland posted a video this week begging the UFC not to sign Johnny Eblen — the former Bellator middleweight champion, now in PFL, who's been a regular sparring partner in his Las Vegas camp.

> "I've been scrapping Johnny! Never let this man come to the UFC. Keep his ass where he's at, f— savage, bro."

Photo: Photo via UFC / Getty Images — Photo via UFC / Getty Images

That's a real quote. From a man who is, as we mentioned, two weeks out from fighting Khamzat Chimaev for the belt.

Read the room. A top-five contender preparing for the most consequential fight of his career used his last clean media window to publicly campaign against the UFC signing his own sparring partner. Not to break down Chimaev's takedown timing. Not to talk about cardio. Not to do the "I see something in his game" content tour where you build the narrative for your own win. He took the camera out and asked Dana White to keep a future problem at the current address.

The choice tells you everything.

The Eblen part

Eblen is 15-0, the former Bellator middleweight champion, and reportedly asked PFL for his release over a year ago because he wanted to test the UFC. The release didn't materialize. Strickland has already said publicly that Eblen "would be fighting for the belt in UFC," which is a quote that ages well only if Eblen never gets there.

So the campaign here isn't just camp loyalty. It's a fighter volunteering, on tape, that there's a guy in his rotation he doesn't want walking into the UFC. The same fighter he's been training with to get ready for one of the most feared wrestlers in middleweight history.

That's a real disclosure.

Same week, Dana cancels the face-offs

Same week, this happened: Dana White cancelled the Paramount-promoted UFC 328 media-day face-offs over security concerns, and the UFC is reportedly putting Strickland and Chimaev in separate hotels in Newark to keep them from running into each other in lobbies, elevators, or anywhere else where the buildup could turn into a brawl. Joe Rogan reportedly told the promotion not to put them in the same room at all.

Chimaev's response to the cancelled face-off was four words: "He will run away."

Strickland's response, in the same window, was a video about Johnny Eblen.

These two facts belong on the same page. The promotion is treating the buildup like a witness-protection situation. One fighter is calling the other a coward in public. The other fighter is spending his press time scouting different problems entirely.

The thing about fighter brain

Two weeks out from a five-round title fight, fighters generally go quiet or go loud about the guy across from them. Strickland, to his credit, has never done quiet. He has done loud. He has done "Chimaev is too close to Kadyrov." He has done "his wrestling is overrated." He has done the entire content cycle.

But the pivot this week was visible. The Eblen video reads like a fighter whose brain is pulling a different file. He's been catching pieces from Eblen in sparring for weeks. He posted it. He volunteered the data.

Now ask yourself this. If you were two weeks out from a title fight, and your most haunting recent training rep came from a guy who isn't even in your promotion, would you tell the world about it? Or would you tape your hands, ice your face, and act like the only person alive is Khamzat Chimaev?

He picked the first one.

What Eblen actually is

Eblen is 15-0 with two Bellator middleweight title defenses. He's a wrestler with hands. He's exactly the kind of fighter who would, on paper, give Strickland the same problems Chimaev gives him: top control, pace, pressure, weight on the chest. If you're Strickland, the reps in camp this month are reading like prep for the wrong fight.

The grappling community has spent the last month watching Chimaev D'arce-choke Demetrious Johnson at sixty pounds heavier than Mighty Mouse. The book on Strickland is that he can take punishment, stay clear-headed, jab, and grind out a decision. The book on Chimaev is that he doesn't let you grind anything out.

The book on Eblen, apparently, is that even Strickland's own corner doesn't want to find out what happens if he ever gets the call.

The closing read

There's a version of this where the Eblen video is just Strickland being Strickland — first-thought-best-thought, no filter, camp affection bleeding through. That version is the kind one.

The other version is what fighters call a tell. You don't spend your last pre-fight news cycle handing the world your sparring tape unless something in there is louder than the title fight.

For those keeping score: the man fighting Khamzat Chimaev in two weeks has now publicly described a different fighter, in his own rotation, as "savage." He has asked the UFC, on the record, to keep that fighter away from him.

Chimaev says Strickland will run away. Strickland says don't sign Eblen.

Only one of those guys sounds like the favorite.

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