Sean Strickland’s UFC 328 Scrum, JDM vs Prates UFC Perth Picks & Oliveira’s Shocking 8-Fight Deal

Ringside Report MMA was back on April 30, 2026, with Dave Simon and AJ D’Alesio breaking down the biggest stories heading into a massive MMA weekend. UFC Fight Night Perth is right around the corner — Jack Della Maddalena versus Carlos Prates in a welterweight main event with real title implications — and UFC 328 is just a week away. Throw in Sean Strickland lighting a pre-fight scrum on fire, Charles Oliveira signing a deal that has everyone asking questions, and two parlays that couldn’t be more different, and you’ve got one loaded show.

Sean Strickland’s Pre-UFC 328 Scrum: Is the Media Building the Hype or Reporting It?

UFC 328 is still a week out, but Sean Strickland has already given the MMA world more than enough to talk about. At a recent scrum, Strickland was asked what he would do if Khamzat Chimaev jumped him — and his answer, predictably, was gasoline on a fire. He made derogatory remarks about Chimaev’s background and said things that prompted media figures, including Ariel Helwani, to sound the alarm about the potential for genuine danger before the middleweight title fight even takes place.

Dave Simon had little patience for the manufactured outrage. “I’m tired of getting offended and being shocked when a UFC fighter says terrible stuff,” he said on the show. “And we’re supposed to be shocked that the UFC doesn’t fire them or do something — but this is what the UFC does. They don’t care.” His point is a fair one: Strickland is a cage fighter, not a politician or a scholar. His opinions on politics, gender, and social issues carry no institutional weight. The media knows exactly what they’re going to get when they point a microphone at him — and they keep pointing it anyway.

The more interesting question isn’t whether Strickland crossed a line. It’s whether the people framing his words as a crisis are genuinely offended or professionally incentivized. Dave argued it’s both — and that the incentive structure wins every time. “You want him to say these things because it’s gonna give you clicks. It’s gonna give you things to talk about. It might even get you on CNN as an MMA insider talking about how horrible of a person he is.

What does that do? That raises your profile.” In other words, Strickland isn’t hurting MMA media. He’s fueling it. AJ agreed that Conor McGregor was arguably more controversial in his prime, and that this kind of chaos has always been part of the UFC’s identity — even if it’s uncomfortable to admit.

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As for Strickland’s actual fighting credentials, Dave made a case that deserves more attention than it’s getting: the former middleweight champion looked better in his last outing than he perhaps ever has, and Chimaev is walking into his first title defense against a legitimate, motivated, well-prepared threat. Strickland’s training camp has reportedly been elite. The questions about wrestling defense, push kicks, and the tactical puzzle of fighting Chimaev are far more interesting than anything said at a scrum — but no one’s asking them, because the controversy is simply better for business.

The UFC’s Real Policy on Fighter Speech — And What Bryce Mitchell Proved

There’s an unwritten rule in the UFC, and it’s becoming more visible by the year: you can say virtually anything and keep your job, as long as you keep fighting. The Bryce Mitchell example came up on the show — Mitchell made headlines for positive comments about Hitler, a moment that would end careers in virtually any other professional sport. In the UFC, it barely registered as a footnote. No suspension. No demotion from main card appearances. Business as usual.

That’s the environment Sean Strickland operates in. He knows there are no consequences for his words as long as he performs. And performance, at the moment, is exactly what he brings — which is why Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland at UFC 328 in New Jersey is a genuine main event and not just a curiosity fight.

The full card also features Josh Van against Tetsuro Tyra for the flyweight title, Alexander Volkov versus Waldo Cortez-Acosta, Sean Brady taking on Joaquin Buckley, and Jeremy Stevens against King Green. It’s a stacked night. But all anyone wants to talk about is what Strickland said at the scrum.

The UFC-Trump-politics angle also came up, with AJ pointing out that the closeness between Dana White and Donald Trump has historical roots — Trump gave the UFC and WWE access to venues at a time when combat sports organizations struggled to get arena dates.

Dave acknowledged the history while noting that the UFC has become the most overtly political sports organization in America, holding events at the White House lawn and maintaining closer ties to the current administration than any other major sports league. Whether that’s a problem is a debate for another show — but it’s a debate that’s hard to separate from the Strickland conversation.

The Influencer Era: How Armin Tsarukyan Figured Out What Just Winning Couldn’t Do

One of the more fascinating tangents on the show involved Armin Tsarukyan and the new rules of MMA fame. Dave pointed out that when Islam Makhachev and Tsarukyan were first scheduled to fight for the lightweight title, most fans had no idea who Armin was. When Tsarukyan pulled out, and the UFC moved on, the reaction was essentially a collective shrug. Nobody demanded the rematch. Nobody was upset. He was just a guy.

Now? Tsarukyan is everywhere. He’s hanging out with social media personalities, getting into scraps at freestyle wrestling events, eating improbable amounts of food on camera — and it’s working. If Islam and Armin were fighting today, it would be a genuinely big fight. That transformation didn’t come from winning more fights. It came from visibility. “Fighting wasn’t enough,” Dave said. “You’ve got to do the extra stuff.”

AJ traced this back to Jake Paul, whom he credited — ahead of most observers — with fundamentally changing the economics and marketing of combat sports. Jake Paul proved that a massive online audience could be converted into pay-per-view buys and fight credibility. The fighters who understood that lesson first — Conor McGregor being the original blueprint — are the ones who’ve thrived financially. The fighters who only fight and do nothing else are increasingly invisible, no matter how good they are.

As Dave put it, Chuck Liddell was a mohawked knockout machine who didn’t need social media to be the most exciting man in the sport. That era is over. Now you might need to eat a comically large meal on Instagram just to stay relevant.

UFC Perth Main Event: Jack Della Maddalena vs Carlos Prates

The main card for UFC Fight Night Perth starts at 7 AM ET on Saturday, May 2, making it an early morning alarm for North American fans — but Dave and AJ both agreed it’s worth waking up for. The main event could hardly be more interesting: Jack Della Maddalena, who challenged Islam Makhachev for the welterweight title at UFC 322, is now fighting in his home country of Australia for the first time since losing that belt. His opponent, Carlos Prates, is one of the most dangerous finishers in the welterweight division, riding a two-fight KO streak that includes wins over Jeff Neal and former champion Leon Edwards.

The implications are significant. A Prates win almost certainly earns him a title shot — he would have knocked out two former champions back-to-back in a division where Islam Makhachev reigns. A JDM win keeps him in the top tier and puts him a win or two away from another championship opportunity. The oddsmakers have called it almost a coin flip: Prates at -125, JDM at -105.

Dave’s pick was Jack Della Maddalena by decision. His reasoning hinged on three things: City Kickboxing’s track record of elite game planning, JDM’s never having been finished in the UFC, and the home-crowd advantage in Perth. “I think that JDM, similar to when he fought Bala Muhammad, will come out with a perfect game plan and the perfect way to fight Carlos Prates,” Dave said. He also pointed to what Ian Gary was able to do against Prates as a tactical blueprint — and argued that JDM has the tools to follow that template in a way that Prates cannot mirror with what Islam did to JDM, since Makhachev’s grappling-based approach is nowhere near Prates’s arsenal.

AJ went the other way. He wasn’t picking JDM to get outboxed — he was picking Prates’s power to be a different kind of problem. “If he gets in that pocket and his defense is not able to stop it, he’s going to be 14 out of 14,” AJ said, referencing Prates’s KO streak. His concern was Prates’s leg kicks and the danger of JDM’s defense breaking down late. He predicted a Prates stoppage, likely in the second or third round if it gets that far. If it goes the distance? AJ conceded JDM probably takes it — but he didn’t think it would get there.

Rest of the Perth Card: Salkeld, Dariush, and Heavyweight Fireworks

The co-main event pairs 26-year-old Australian Quillan Salkeld (11-1) against veteran Beneil Dariush, and this is one of the oddsmakers have settled definitively: Salkeld at -500, Dariush at +350. That spread tells the story. Dariush, at 36, has lost three of his last four and was most recently knocked out in 16 seconds by Benoit Saint Denis. He’s a name, and that name has value — but the value here is as a stepping stone for a rising prospect fighting in front of a home crowd that will be electric for him. AJ and Dave agreed: Salkeld, possibly by stoppage.

The Perth card also features two heavyweight matchups that Dave described as pure rock ’em sock ’em action: Brando Perchitch against Shamil Gaziev, and Tai Tuivasa against Louis Sutherland. For a Saturday morning that will have North American fans up before their coffee kicks in, at least the heavyweight fights will make sure no one falls back asleep.

Parlay Time: Dave Plays It Safe, AJ Goes Nuclear

Both hosts put together parlays for the Perth card, and they couldn’t be more different in personality. Dave’s three-leg play: Jonathan Micaliffe (-250 on the prelims), Quillan Salkeld (-500), and Jack Della Maddalena (-105). A $20 bet returns $65.60 at +228. Conservative, logical, built around fighters he trusts heavily.

AJ went five legs and swung for the fences. His parlay: Carlos Prates (-125), Quillan Salkeld (-500), Tim Miliard over Steve Ersig (+165), Shamil Gaziev (+110), and Tai Tuivasa (-230). At +1625 odds, $20 returns $344.93. Dave read the numbers aloud and couldn’t hide his amusement. It’s the kind of parlay that requires four things to go right that a reasonable person might not count on — but hey, that’s what makes it fun. AJ’s version of the Perth card is chaotic, Brazilian-powered, and worth twenty bucks of action.

Charles Oliveira’s 8-Fight Deal: Career Move or Career Trap?

The other major story from this week’s show was Charles Oliveira signing a new eight-fight deal with the UFC at age 36, coming up on his 50th professional fight. His management celebrated the deal publicly. Dave did not celebrate alongside them.

“I don’t understand a fighter at Charles Oliveira’s stage in his career signing an eight-fight contract,” Dave said. “His manager thinks it’s going to take him to 40 years old — but when in all likelihood it will take him past that, to the point where he doesn’t want to fight anymore, and he still has three fights left on his deal. And then the UFC just holds you under contract forever, where you have to ask them permission to do a boxing match for charity in your hometown.”

The deeper critique is about leverage. At 36, with elite submission skills and name recognition, Oliveira had maximum leverage heading into this negotiation. The UFC needs his name on their marquee — fighters like him are the ones younger prospects need to beat to establish their own credibility. AJ acknowledged this dynamic: the UFC signs big names in the twilight of their careers because those names make every young fighter who beats them more valuable. But AJ also pointed out that the contract likely isn’t guaranteed for all eight fights — lose a few in a row and the UFC can cut him. It’s not the guaranteed security blanket it appears to be on paper.

Dave’s question about whether Oliveira could have negotiated a shorter, more lucrative deal got to the heart of how the UFC’s contract structure works. Are they offering more money up front in exchange for more fights? Is the eighth-fight payout significantly larger than the first? Or is this simply a numbers game where the UFC locks up a name while the fighter believes he still has more in the tank than he does? The question of how the UFC handles aging veterans is one the sport keeps confronting, and Oliveira’s deal is just the latest example.

Both hosts agreed on one thing: Charles Oliveira has been a remarkable fighter and has done tremendous good outside the cage, reportedly running school programs and charitable initiatives in Brazil. Whatever the merits of this contract, his legacy in the sport is secure. Whether this deal serves him well in the long run is another matter entirely.

Sports Corner: Yankees Surge, Canadiens One Win Away

The boys wrapped things up with a sports corner, which put Dave in a good mood. The Yankees swept Boston, took two or three in Houston, and handled the Texas Rangers on the road trip — enough to put them in first place in the AL East with the best record in the American League. The Mets, meanwhile, are sitting on the second-highest payroll in baseball and somehow still finding new ways to struggle, with Luke Weaver delivering a loss that Dave found darkly funny given Weaver’s Yankees history.

The bigger hockey story: the Montreal Canadiens are one win away from advancing in the playoffs after a dramatic 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5. Game 6 goes at the Bell Centre tomorrow night. AJ and the show’s absent co-host Johnny North — a devoted Habs fan — are riding high. Dave, a Yankees man through and through, offered a creative hypothetical: would Johnny trade a Canadiens Stanley Cup for a Yankees World Series title? The consensus answer was that Johnny would take the Cup, no negotiation required. Dave had his own version: he’d trade five Red Sox World Series titles for the Montreal Expos to return. Some deals, it seems, are easier than others.