UFC 328 fight card: Five biggest storylines to follow in Newark
Two world titles will be on the line Saturday, including one of the hottest feuds in recent memory in the main event, when UFC 328 takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Undefeated middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev will defend his title for the first time against bitter rival and former belt holder Sean Strickland in the headliner. In the co-main event, Joshua Van will defend his flyweight title for the first time against contender Tatsuro Taira.
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As we get closer to this weekend’s event, let’s take a look at the biggest storylines surrounding UFC 328.
1. Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland really don’t like each other
What started as a disagreement inside the Extreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, where Strickland accused the visiting Chimaev of being a bully toward his training partners, has escalated into one of the hottest vendettas in recent UFC title history. Chimaev will put his 15-0 record and middleweight title on the line in his first fight since completely demolishing Dricus du Plessis to win the belt last August. And to suggest that the UFC is doing the right thing by increasing its security services ahead of Saturday would be an understatement. The heat here is real – very real – and has even reached potentially dangerous levels after Strickland, during a media scrum last week in the middle of training camp, threatened to shoot Chimaev and his team if they faced him during fight week. The hot-headed Strickland (30-7) has repeatedly called Chimaev a “weak man” and didn’t let a recent interview go by without degrading the Russia native on just about every topic. The UFC expects to limit faceoffs or potential interactions between the two at Friday’s weigh-in ceremony. To paraphrase the late WWE Hall of Famer Gorilla Monsoon, the tension hanging over the Octagon this weekend will be so thick you can cut it with a knife.
2. If Strickland can’t slow down Chimaev, are there any middleweights who can?
That’s the question that’s been asked by fans and critics alike lately, given Chimaev’s sublime wrestling skills and the nasty sequence in which he inflicts the ground and pound. If there was someone at 185 pounds following Chimaev’s title win last year and the general public thought they had the ground game and/or motor to match Chimaev, the answers would have been Reiner de Ridder and Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez. But RDR suffered two defeats and then moved up to light heavyweight. Hernandez, meanwhile, was absolutely dominated in a shocking third-round TKO loss to Strickland that reignited the 35-year-old former champion’s title hopes. Strickland has stopped 76% of takedowns in his UFC career and has plenty of intangibles like cardio, defense, and the willingness to fight in the pocket (despite being a 4-to-1 betting underdog) to potentially give Chimaev problems. Chimaev, who averages more than five takedowns every 15 minutes, just dominated du Plessis, the former champion who beat Strickland twice in title fights over the past two years. But MMA math is never perfect and Strickland might just have the best skills and style available to try and surprise such a dominant champion.
3. The youth movement in men’s flyweight is upon us
Although it wasn’t the most convincing 125-pound title win last December, when Joshua Van pushed defending champion Alexandre Pantoja on the canvas after just 26 seconds of fighting only to cause a serious dislocated elbow, the 24-year-old Myanmar native will tell you himself that the TKO victory was the result of something he caused. And the aftermath of that win sparked an interesting youth movement at the top of the division. With Pantoja, 36, still recovering from injury, Van (16-2) will defend his title for the first time on Saturday against 26-year-old Japanese Tatsuro Taira (18-1) in what should be an exciting and fast-paced fight. In recent years, the division has been dominated by veteran champions like Pantoja, Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo. But the rapid emergence of Van and Taira, alongside 26-year-old London native Lone’er Kavanagh, who upset Moreno in February on short notice, has created a bright future at flyweight. And this future seems to be today.
4. Tatsuro Taira is one win away from making Japanese MMA history
For a country like Japan, so steeped in martial arts tradition and widely considered one of the birthplaces of MMA, the fact that the “Land of the Rising Sun” has yet to produce a single UFC champion remains an almost unthinkable anecdote. In fact, in the early 2000s, Japan was the epicenter of the sport behind the theatrical promotion PRIDE, which still holds the sport’s world attendance record of 91,107 for a fight card at Tokyo National Stadium in 2002. Kazushi Sakuraba and Kenichi Yamamoto both won UFC-promoted four-man tournaments in the late 1990s, but never a division title. Yamamoto later became one of seven fighters of Japanese descent to unsuccessfully fight for UFC titles, in a list that includes current 125-pound fighters Kyoji Horiguchi (2015) and Kai Asukara (2024). But Taira, who is 8-1 inside the Octagon since his UFC debut in 2022, has an excellent chance of becoming the former as he enters as a slight betting favorite against reigning champion Van. Taira’s only loss in the UFC came via split decision to Brandon Royval in 2024 and the Okinawa native is coming off a stoppage against former two-time champion Moreno.
5. A top-five heavyweight clash could have major title implications
Despite all the uncertainty surrounding the heavyweight title picture, including champion Tom Aspinall’s recovery from double eye surgery and the UFC’s refusal to book Jon Jones, it would be difficult to deny Saturday’s winner of Alexander Volkov and Waldo Cortes-Acosta a shot at the belt. Volkov (39-11), ranked No. 2, has won five of his last six fights, including a split decision loss to Ciryl Gane in 2024 that everyone (including UFC CEO Dana White) thought was a steal. Meanwhile, No. 4 Cortes-Acosta (17-2) has emerged as one of the division’s bright spots as a surprise contender after an 8-1 streak since 2023. Cortes-Acosta has moved to the top of the class by staying busy as he enters his eighth fight in the last 14 months, seeking his fourth straight victory since November. With Aspinall’s return date still unknown, the UFC will stage an interim heavyweight title fight at the White House in June between Gane and former two-division champion Alex Pereira. This could open up a huge opportunity for the winner this weekend.
