Fellow UFC fighters were left in disbelief after Khamzat Chimaev, once considered an unstoppable force in the UFC middleweight division, suffered his first career defeat. The shocking loss came at UFC 328 against Sean Strickland, and even his peers struggled to process what they witnessed.
U.S. middleweight Khalil Rountree, who watched the main event title fight, shared his reaction with MMA Mania on May 13 (Korean time). “It was so hard to watch because that wasn’t the Chimaev I know,” Rountree said. “It was truly shocking. I had trouble scoring each round and analyzing the fight properly. I kept asking myself, ‘What’s wrong with Chimaev?'”
The fight took place on May 10, with Chimaev losing the middleweight title defense via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 47-48). In the first round, Chimaev managed to take Strickland to the ground, his specialty, but failed to inflict significant damage. By the second round, he appeared visibly fatigued and resorted to striking exchanges, where Strickland holds an advantage. Chimaev even found himself controlled on the ground at times. In rounds three and four, he relied solely on striking, and though he scored a takedown in the fifth, it wasn’t enough to sway the judges.
Rountree analyzed the fight closely. “The first round was excellent, but things completely changed from the second. After the third round, I remember scoring it for Chimaev. I’m biased, I know. In the fourth, I thought, ‘Okay, he’s up three rounds going into the fifth.’ But the fifth round was chaos,” he recalled.
Chimaev had been on a 15-fight unbeaten streak in MMA, dominating opponents with his overwhelming wrestling. His first loss came as a huge surprise, given his reputation as a fearsome grappler. Rountree still believes Chimaev could have won. “In the end, I think he did enough to win rounds 1, 3, and 4,” he said. “If there’s a rematch, the outcome will be completely different.”
Rountree, a veteran fighter with a 10-7-1 record in the UFC since 2016, is married to Korean-British model Mia Kang—earning him the nickname “Mr. Kim” among Korean fans. {IMAGE0} {IMAGE1} {IMAGE2} {IMAGE3} 
