UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev and former titleholder Sean Strickland have taken smack talk to another level leading up to their UFC 328 showdown. They've both mentioned fighting in the streets. Strickland suggested that he'd shoot Chimaev and his team if they tried to jump him, butChimaev isn't taking Strickland's comments too seriously.

"I don't know. We'll see what's going to happen over there. For me, the same sh*t," Chimaev said in a scrum interview on Thursday. "Clowns always talk. He's not going to be a clown if he's quiet."

"Bro, he didn't shoot any chickens in the world, bro. How is he going to shoot the human," Chimaev continued. "I don't know. I don't think so. The guy wants a real war outside of the cage. So, if he wanted, he'd be dead already."

The two used to train together but have very different recollections of how those training sessions went. Strickland considers Chimaev a bully who beat up on lesser training partners. Chimaev claims to have had his way with "Tarzan" and expects the same to happen in the UFC 328 main event.

"He never had success with me. So, it's not going to be different this time as well. I was fighting 170 that time. So imagine I beat him on that weight and was cutting the weight and at that time I beat him. So, right now, people know how big I am, how hungry I am. So, it's good meat. I like white American chicken," said Chimaev. "My plan is just go there, beat him up, take the money and go home."

UFC 328: Chimaev vs. Strickland takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on May 9. It will be Chimaev's first title defense land the 12th time the fight promotion has held an event in Newark.