Khamzat Chimaev is not letting go of his split decision loss to Sean Strickland.

The Mac Life has Chimaev going further, quoting him as saying, "I won the match but they took my belt." That is Chimaev's own read on how the fight went, not how it was scored. Our tracker has the two meeting on May 9, 2026, with Strickland winning by split decision, and the belt and the win both stayed with him.

The numbers from our Elo model are close enough to explain why Chimaev wants another shot. Strickland rates 1545 across nine logged bouts, and Chimaev rates 1549 across four, essentially even, with the margin from their first fight doing little to separate them.

For Strickland, there is no obvious reason to rush back into the cage with a guy he just beat, split decision or not. For Chimaev, getting that rematch booked is the clearest path back to the title he thinks was wrongly taken off him on the scorecards. Whether the UFC wants to run the fight again so soon, or send Strickland toward a different challenger first, is the real question hanging over the division now.

Chimaev's message is simple: if Strickland wants another big payday, he knows who is calling for it.