Sean Strickland is not done raging against the UFC and its treatment of fighters.
On Wednesday, Strickland took to Twitter to express his frustrations with being undercompensated and underestimated, even though he is currently in his second reign as UFC middleweight champion. He criticized the promotion for overpaying star Conor McGregor, who has fought just once since 2021, and for Zuffa Boxing’s signing of Conor Benn, going so far as to say he plans to leave the promotion as soon as his contract is up to pursue a fight with Jake Paul.
Strickland followed up on that rant in a clip posted to social media, which you can watch below.
“I fought for the title four times, won it twice, beat every bogeyman in the division,” Strickland said. “I’ve already fought half the division, I want to box. I want to put a fucking boxing title on my mantle. I deserve it. I don’t even do MMA, I just box. I’ll put my hands on any boxer.
“If Jake Paul wants to give me a big bag of money to fight him, I’m under contract, fine, I’ll go to Zuffa (Boxing), I’ll go beat your cruiserweight champion, easy.”
Strickland already holds victories over numerous middleweights, including Israel Adesanya and Khamzat Chimaev, as well as current contenders Nassourdine Imavov and Anthony Hernandez. Rematches with Chimaev and Imavov have been rumored to be in the works, but Strickland has spent much of the past few months dealing with injuries and is now focused on clarifying his position with the UFC.
The ever-opinionated Strickland criticizes the UFC for signing up its top fighters without presenting them with a realistic path for them to retire.
“But let me tell you something about the UFC and I’m going to say out loud the silent part that no one says,” Strickland said. “You’ll go to these champions, these savages of the sport, they run the division, and they take an L, and they come back and they fight three or four times, they come up flat. Like, man, what happened to you? And you realize the UFC happened. They don’t care anymore.
“The UFC doesn’t pay you enough money to walk away saying, ‘Man, life is fucking good. “The UFC is building a legacy, they keep you here, but they’re building a legacy and they don’t pay you enough, so you have to come back and ruin your legacy. I just don’t want to do that. It’s like this McDonald’s has been repackaged right to the head. I’m not interested in that anymore.
Strickland maintains he still wants to fight, but his main goal is to go where he’ll be paid the most, and if that means pursuing never-before-seen boxing matches with the likes of Paul, so be it.
“I want to fight, I want to box, I want to win a boxing title, so we’re trying to figure that out, but if the UFC says, ‘Hey, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to make you fight,’ well, I’m going to stay and move,” Strickland said. “You guys are going to boo. Hell, I’m going to boo with you while I do it. Stay and move, collect my check and then move on. I mean, damn, here we are.”
Gn sports
