Din Thomas believes Sean Strickland can pull off the upset against UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.

Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) is a big favorite over Strickland (30-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) heading into their UFC 328 main event, which takes place May 9 in Newark, N.J. (Paramount+).

But after Strickland finished Anthony Hernandez by TKO at UFC Fight Night 267, UFC analyst Thomas is starting to believe fans could be in for a surprise.

“Sean looked so good in his last fight that I believe he’s capable of beating Chimaev, and he might be the only middleweight on the planet right now that’s capable of beating Chimaev,” Thomas told MMA Junkie. “If we had Nassourdine (Imavov), for as great as he is, in my head I couldn’t see it happening. But I can see Sean Strickland doing it. He looked sharp as hell in his last fight. He looked amazing in his last fight. If he can carry that over in this fight, he might beat Chimaev. So, that’s intriguing to me.”

Chimaev and Strickland trained together years ago at Xtreme Couture and have traded plenty of barbs online. Strickland has crossed the line with his insults, which makes Thomas even more drawn to this fight.

“Also what’s intriguing to me is they have history, and that’s partially one of the biggest factors that makes any fight interesting is history,” Thomas continued. “They have history, they’ve trained together before, and they don’t like each other. And when you consider that they may not like each other, it’s probably somewhat real. Like a lot of guys fabricate the beef so that they can sell it, but you can tell that these guys probably don’t really care for each other.”

To hear more from Thomas, check out his complete appearance on “The Bohnfire” podcast with MMA Junkie senior reporter Mike Bohn above.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 328: Is Sean Strickland only 185er who can beat Khamzat Chimaev?