Chimaev offers Strickland his own money for a rematch as pay standoff stalls title

Khamzat Chimaev offered on Monday, October 5, to pay middleweight champion Sean Strickland to fight him again. "I will pay you 1 🍋 Send me location and let's fight," Chimaev wrote on X. He added that he didn't care if it was inside the cage or out.

The post never mentions dollars. Sherdog reported it as a $1 million offer, and EssentiallySports explained the lemon as slang for a million. NY Fights treated it as a joke. Either way, there's no bout, date or venue attached.

It came a day after Nassourdine Imavov made his own offer. "If it's really about money, I'll put $500K of my own money on the line if you beat me in January," Imavov wrote on X on Sunday, October 4. In the same post, as quoted by Sherdog, he told the UFC to "STRIP HIM." Strickland had not answered either man as of Tuesday, according to MMA Insight.

Why the champion is sitting out

Strickland vs. Imavov had been linked to UFC 335 on December 12 in Las Vegas, but the card has been built without it. The UFC's event page lists Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes as the main event, with Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alex Pereira as the co-main.

Early reports blamed an ATV crash. MMA Mania's Alex Behunin then reported that Strickland had "zero injuries from the crash," as cited by NY Fights. Behunin said "the UFC went in a different direction."

Strickland has pointed to money himself. "We're discussing pay now. Once that detail is squared, it's locked in," he wrote on X on September 27, according to NY Fights. When a fan on Instagram said the holdup was money, he replied "bingo lol".

The reported figures are unverified. A claim that he asked for $1 million and was offered $400,000 to show and $400,000 to win came from an X user. That's according to EssentiallySports, and no reporter or official has backed it up. The UFC, Dana White and Strickland have not confirmed those numbers.

Pay has been a sore point for him before. Ahead of UFC 302 in 2024, a fan on X guessed his purse at "$200 show, $200 win." He replied "Close but loss lol", according to TheSportster. In February 2024, Jake Paul offered him $1 million if he beat Paul in a boxing match. Strickland turned it down, SI reported.

The two challengers

Strickland beat Chimaev by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) at UFC 328 in Newark on May 9 to take the belt. It was Chimaev's first pro loss, leaving him 15-1. It came in his first defence of the title he won from Dricus du Plessis in August 2025. He has his own date first: a freestyle wrestling match with Colby Covington for RAF in Abu Dhabi on November 14, according to The National.

Strickland closed at +375 for that fight, about a 20% chance, with Chimaev at −500, according to our Strickland page. He was also +460 when he first won the title from Israel Adesanya in 2023. Had you backed him at the closing price in all 15 of his fights since 2020, you'd be up 11.27 units.

Imavov's case rests on form. He is 17-4 and has won five straight, per our Imavov page. That run includes a second-round TKO of Adesanya in February 2025 and a win over Caio Borralho that September. He hasn't fought since.

He already lost to Strickland once, by unanimous decision in January 2023. Strickland took that fight on short notice, at light heavyweight, according to Wikipedia, and Imavov closed a −137 favourite.

We think Imavov has the better claim to go next. He has won five in a row and waited more than a year, while Chimaev had his shot in May.

What comes next

Nothing is booked. UFC 336 on January 16, 2027, is the reported target, according to EssentiallySports, but the UFC hasn't announced that event or any opponent. Heavy reported that the UFC's numbered cards are full for the rest of 2026, which pushes a title fight into 2027.