Sean Strickland recaptured the UFC middleweight belt in a split decision over Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328 in Newark.
A thunderous split-decision result in Newark flipped the UFC middleweight picture in an instant, with Sean Strickland stunning Khamzat Chimaev to reclaim the 185-pound championship at UFC 328.
Strickland secured the win in the main event via a split decision. with two judges scoring the fight 48-47 for the American.. The third judge also had the contest at 48-47. but in Chimaev’s favor. underlining how tightly contested the 25-minute duel was throughout.. The bout drew 17,783 fans to the Prudential Center.
What made the finish feel even more symbolic was the way the fight ended rather than how it began.. After the fifth round. Strickland appeared to celebrate as if the championship was already settled. miming the belt being placed around his waist.. Chimaev, despite losing, played the role of the formal presenter inside the cage, handing over the championship hardware.
For Strickland, the victory delivered a second middleweight title reign.. He previously held the belt from Sep.. 9, 2023, until Jan.. 20, 2024, when he lost the championship.. Saturday’s success also means he is the second former middleweight to regain the title. a list that has now grown again after the latest Newark night.
That “first reign” context matters because it wasn’t a typical champion-to-champion handoff. Strickland’s first run as middleweight champion began when he upset Israel Adesanya, and his return to the top has now been framed by a familiar theme in his career: refusing to stay down after setbacks.
Chimaev, meanwhile, suffered the first loss of his MMA career, which also marked a major shift in his momentum.. His record dipped to 15-1 after the defeat. and the loss carried a further sting because it came in his first defense of the middleweight championship.. He had earned that title after beating Driscus Du Plessis for the belt in August 2025 at UFC 319.
The defeat also resets what Chimaev’s next chapter could look like.. With the title gone after that first successful run. questions naturally turn to whether he can immediately reassert himself in the division—especially given how narrow the judges’ scoring was and how close the fight appeared to be in the end.
Strickland’s path back to a title shot also sets the timeline for his comeback.. Saturday marked his second fight after a year away from the octagon.. In that return stretch. he earned the opportunity by knocking out Anthony Hernandez in February. turning that performance into a direct route back to championship contention.
After Saturday night. Strickland’s professional record now stands at 31-7. while Chimaev’s unbeaten aura in the sport has been broken for the first time.. The result. though carried by a split decision. felt decisive in terms of the championship order—returning the belt to Strickland and ending Chimaev’s reign.
Joshua Van retained the UFC flyweight title in the co-main event. and the fight delivered the kind of one-sided momentum UFC fans expect in a first-rate championship defense.. Van mauled Tatsuro Taira into a bloody mess while successfully defending his 125-pound belt in the first title fight in company history contested between two Asian fighters.
Van’s dominance came through crisp. elite boxing and a sustained pressure that left Taira visibly damaged from round to round.. He won via stoppage at 1:32 of round five, but the sequence of the fight began well before the finish.. Van took control in the second round with a violent right hand to the jaw that produced a knockdown. then continued to batter Taira repeatedly in the face.
Even when Van didn’t force the fight into a sudden end immediately. he kept sharpening the damage as the rounds unfolded.. Taira’s face and chest were smeared with blood. reflecting how the punishment escalated even after failing to finish a particular round outright.. Van eventually converted that sustained control into the late stoppage.
There was also a broader statistical storyline embedded in the matchup: Van and Taira were the first two opponents in UFC history to meet in a title fight where both competitors were born in the 2000s.. The fight became more than just a championship defense; it was also framed as a generational marker for the organization.
For Van. the defense came in his first title fight since beating Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323. and it extended a remarkable run.. The 24-year-old, who is from Myanmar, has won seven straight fights and 10 of 11 since signing with the UFC.. Few stages have offered a larger stage in his career than Newark. where this co-main championship bout became the centerpiece of UFC 328’s evening.
Taira’s loss dashed his bid to become the first Japanese fighter to win UFC gold. Despite the strength of the opponent on the night, his attempt to make history ended with the flyweight belt remaining with Van.
The main card also offered several notable results beyond the championship fights.. Sean Brady defeated Joaquin Buckley via unanimous decision, while King Green secured a submission win over Jeremy Stephens by choke.. Alexander Volkov. meanwhile. won by unanimous decision against Waldo Cortes-Acosta. adding another points-based victory to a night that featured both stoppages and tightly judged bouts.
On the undercard, Jim Miller’s return carried something bigger than the usual fighter’s narrative. The 42-year-old used a submission victory to add to his UFC totals in his first return to the cage since his teenage son beat a rare form of childhood cancer.
Miller, a New Jersey native, defeated Jared Gordon in a lightweight bout at UFC 328 using a rear-naked choke at 3:29 of the first round. The setting mattered: his family was cheering him on from the Prudential Center, turning the bout into a family moment as much as a competitive one.
The win extended Miller’s UFC record totals, bringing his career under the UFC banner to 28 wins in 47 fights and earning him his 20th finish, which is listed as second most in UFC history. It was a return marked by both performance and personal meaning.
Wyatt Miller. 14. had been diagnosed last year with rhabdomyosarcoma. described as a rare type of cancer that begins as a growth of cells in soft tissue and is more common in childhood.. Wyatt underwent two courses of chemotherapy and five weeks of proton radiation at the Rutgers University Cancer Institute before eventually receiving a clean bill of health.
Inside the octagon. Miller reflected on the emotional weight of the months leading up to his son’s recovery. saying the toughest period had stretched through difficult times and that his son ultimately “kicked the heck out of cancer. ” leaving him cancer-free.. Miller also described encouraging his son with the idea that fighters known as “fragile” never applies to the Millers. and emphasized that Wyatt fought his way through the ordeal.
That health scare is also what kept Miller away from competition for 13 months. breaking the rhythm of a fighter who had built his career around frequent appearances.. His most recent outing before UFC 328 was a loss to Chase Hooper at UFC 314 in April 2025. making this return a carefully timed return to action.
For MISRYOUM, UFC 328 ultimately read like two parallel storylines: title legacies reshuffled in the spotlight, and personal survival carried onto the same canvas that fans come for every time the cage doors close.
UFC 328 Sean Strickland Khamzat Chimaev Joshua Van Jim Miller UFC middleweight title