Athletes
Wild Is The Sean Strickland Way
Just A Month After His Last Fight, Sean Strickland Opens UFC's 2023 Slate At UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs Imavov
Wearing the flimsy dilation glasses they give your grandmother when she visits the eye doctor, Sean Strickland held court with a crowd of bemused and befuddled MMA journalists Wednesday at the media day for the card he headlines Saturday: UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs Imavov.
Topics during the fourteen-minute interview ranged from Prince Harry’s book and what Star Wars characters members of the media look like to his thoughts about France and stories from his past.
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Most of what was discussed didn’t have much to do with fighting at all – which is one of the reasons why Strickland is such an interesting personality. What he says on the mic often overshadows the fact that he’s one heck of a fighter and, in a way, Strickland’s media day on Wednesday has resembled the unpredictability of his UFC career thus far.
The 31-year-old started out as a middleweight before moving to welterweight for eight fights. A serious motorcycle accident forced Strickland out of the Octagon for two-plus years, but when he returned, he rejoined the middleweight division as a truly different fighter.
Strickland rattled off the best win streak of his UFC career, earning six straight victories. Victories over Brendan Allen, Uriah Hall, and Jack Hermansson helped him move into the upper echelon of the division, and during the streak it became clear that Strickland enjoyed talking to his opponents and didn’t care about ruffling feathers along the way.
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That’s when he ran into a buzzsaw in the form of current middleweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC 276.
Sean Strickland Sits Down With Brendan Fitzgerald
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Sean Strickland Sits Down With Brendan Fitzgerald
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The loss didn’t really set Strickland back, however. He knew it was a calculated risk, and while it didn’t exactly turn out well, he knew a victory in his next bout would right the ship. That next opportunity came against Jared Cannonier less than a month ago.
The judges awarded Cannonier with a split decision victory that Strickland couldn’t believe.
“I thought I got robbed. I think a lot of people thought I got robbed,” Strickland told the media. “What you guys you saw was a matrix level style of boxing. Not one f****** punch landed; I was seeing everything. I was in the matrix like Bobby Green before he went to sleep, that’s how good it was, but you have judges who don’t know f*** about fighting.”
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Maybe I should throw a few more kicks and grunt a little more. The judges don’t care about striking, really. I don’t really know what they are looking for.”
After the fight, Strickland focused on planning a snowboarding trip. But before he could hit the slopes, UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard gave him a call explaining that Kelvin Gastelum had fallen out of his main event bout with Nassourdine Imavov on January 14.
With the fight less than a week away, Maynard asked if Strickland would step in.
“I knew when I saw it was Mick that Mick is going to ask me to do something I don’t want to do,” Strickland laughed. “That’s when he said UFC would pay a decent amount of money and I said ‘Well, f***, Mick, I’m your huckleberry.”
Stepping in on short notice has been kind to Strickland before, as he accepted a same week fight with Allen and earned a Performance of the Night bonus for his TKO win.
The bout with Imavov will be held at light heavyweight, so that Strickland doesn’t have to cut too much weight too quickly. It was the best-case scenario for Strickland, who admits he hasn’t paid much attention to Imavov.
“I haven’t really watched him fight,” Strickland said. “I know he likes to bang and throws big punches.”
All that Strickland truthfully needs to know is that he’s scheduled to fight. He’s going to show up and he’s going to enjoy every second that he’s inside that Octagon. Wild on the mic and a savage in the Octagon.
That’s just the Sean Strickland way.
UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs Imavov took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 14, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
