Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland has vented his frustration at current divisional kingpin Khamzat Chimaev’s lack of activity, which he fears is going to hold up the divisional for as long as he continues to hold the belt.

“It’s kind of weird what the UFC did with Chimaev,” Strickland told ESPN. “You brought a guy in that fights once a year who’s like Madonna who probably gets like, you know, I mean, how much money does that dictator give him under the table? Like, the guy doesn’t need to fight dude. He’s best friends with a f*cking warlord. He doesn’t need to f*cking fight. Dude gets gifted G Wagons.

“You have somebody who like, he’s just going to sit on that f*cking belt and wait and wait until they force him to fight. The middleweight division, from a pure money perspective, you would make more money not fighting for the belt than you would fighting for the belt, right?

“Say Chimaev goes and fights Nassourdine [Imavov] in six months. Well, let’s say Chimaev springs his f*cking pinky like he normally does. Now he takes another year off. So, it’s like you’re off for two years where it’s like the belt isn’t even like, it’s not even in my brain anymore. I don’t think about it. Like I’ll make significantly more money just fighting.”

Khamzat actually cultivated a reputation as an abnormally active fighter on the roster when he first burst on to the UFC scene in 2020 with three wins in the space of just over a month.

However, the star has since been plagued by illness and injuries, and has been fighting far less frequently.

Khamzat eventually won the middleweight title last August with a unanimous decision victory over Dricus du Plessis, but that was only his third fight in the last three years at that time.

Six months later the 31-year-old doesn’t yet have another fight booked, with the latest word being that he doesn’t intend to defend the belt until after Ramadan, which would suggest that be able to fight again in April at the earliest.