A blockbuster middleweight championship fight between reigning undisputed champion Khamzat Chimaev and former titleholder Sean Strickland will headline UFC 328.
The 185-pound grudge match will take place May 9 at The Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., UFC president Dana White announced Thursday.
Chimaev won the title last summer when he smothered Dricus Du Plessis and swept the scorecards at UFC 319. He hasn't attempted to defend the title yet.
The unbeaten 31-year-old is 3-0 since making the permanent move up from welterweight to middleweight with consecutive wins over past champions Kamaru Usman and Robert Whittaker preceding his win over Du Plessis.
Strickland is coming off a sensational performance in February when he got his hand raised thanks to an impressive technical knockout over Anthony Hernandez.
It was Strickland’s first win since losing a five-round decision to Du Plessis in their championship rematch at UFC 312 one year prior. The 35-year-old from California has been alternating wins and losses since his title run.
Strickland won the title in 2023 when he defeated longtime champ Israel Adesanya, lost the belt in his next outing to Du Plessis at UFC 297, rebounded with a win over Paulo Costa but then lost the Du Plessis rematch before looking fully refreshed a year later versus Hernandez.
The brash and polarizing American made it clear after stopping Hernandez he wanted his next fight to be against Chimaev for the belt.
Du Plessis remains the No. 1-ranked contender in the division and hasn’t fought since losing to Chimaev.
Nassourdine Imavov is ranked No. 2 at 185 pounds with five consecutive wins, however he has a previous loss to Strickland and will have to wait for his first title shot.
UFC 328 marks the fourth consecutive year the organization has held an event in New Jersey, with last year’s UFC 316 featuring Merab Dvalishvili and Kayla Harrison submitting Sean O'Malley and Julianna Pena, respectively, in a pair of bantamweight title fights.
White also announced a handful of other fights on the UFC 328 card:
Volkov vs. Cortes Acosta (co-main)
Brady vs. Buckley
Blachowicz vs. Guskov 2
King Green vs. Jeremy
Stephens Gautier vs. Ozzy Diaz
Finally, White announced a number of non-UFC 328 bouts:
Charles Jourdain vs. Kyler Phillips (April 18, co-main in Winnipeg)
Aljamain Sterling vs. Youssef Zalal (April 25 main at Meta Apex)
Beneil Dariush vs. Quillan Salkilld (May 2 co-main in Perth)
Arnold Allen vs. Melquizael Costa (May 16 main at Meta Apex)
Belal Muhammad vs. G. Bonfim (June 6 main event at Meta Apex)
May 30 in Macau, China:
Song Yadong vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (main)
Zhang Mingyang vs. Alonzo Menifield (co-main)
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tallison Teixeira
