Andrew Ravens
Dustin Poirier believes Khamzat Chimaev‘s status as an imposing, aura-carrying presence in the middleweight division took a meaningful hit at UFC 328 in Newark on Saturday night, and he thinks whoever fights Chimaev next will walk in with less psychological disadvantage than previous opponents.
Speaking on UFC on Paramount+ after the show, Poirier also took direct aim at the post-fight moment between Chimaev and Sean Strickland, suggesting the reconciliation revealed something uncomfortable about the entire build.
“The next fight, whoever he gets matched up with, it’s going to be tough for him to intimidate because his aura took a hit this week,” Poirier said. “With the back-and-forth, I thought it was real. I think his whole aura took a hit this week. And putting the belt on Strickland — like, come on, man. They worked us for sure.”
Poirier’s point is rooted in what made Chimaev a distinct figure in the sport. The unbeaten record was a significant part of his mystique, but so was the sense of a menace that surrounded him in the build-up to every fight.
Strickland and Chimaev’s exchanges ahead of UFC 328 had escalated into some of the most harsh pre-fight trash talk in recent memory, touching on religion, ethnicity, and physical threats that made the confrontation feel genuinely volatile.
Chimaev’s willingness to immediately make peace with Strickland after the final bell, in Poirier’s view, undermined the authenticity of everything that preceded it. The fight itself was competitive throughout. All three judges scored the contest two rounds apiece heading into the fifth, before two of them awarded Strickland the final round and the fight by split decision, handing Chimaev the first loss of his MMA career and stripping him of the middleweight championship.
Whether Chimaev receives an immediate rematch or Strickland defends against another challenger has not yet been confirmed by the UFC.
