Sean Strickland shocked the world in beating Israel Adesanya, but the new UFC
Sean Strickland is the new UFC middleweight champion after beating Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 293, but he’s a man who carries a lot of baggage.
His victory on Sunday has been branded one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, with all three judges scoring the bout 49-46 for the American to ensure he won by unanimous decision.
After dropping his opponent in the first round, Strickland survived a comeback of sorts from Adesanya in the second, then took the remaining stages of the contest with a brilliant effort that saw him continually pressure his rival and land big shots.
The new world champ was overcome with emotion in the octagon after the decision was announced and told the crowd, ‘Am I f**king dreaming? Am I going to wake up? Someone hit me!’
But he has previously made headlines for all the wrong reasons, from talks of murder to stern sexism.
Sean Strickland is the new UFC middleweight champion after beating Israel Adesanya
Strickland’s win by unanimous decision has been dubbed one of the biggest upsets of all time
The American carries controversy with him, however, having made several hallowing remarks in the past
In June, the 32-year-old made a string of sexist and misogynistic remarks, saying ‘we need to take women out of the workforce’ and ‘put them back in the kitchen.’
‘We let women vote, no offense. Think about America prior to women voting,’ he said.
‘They tried to ban alcohol, I don’t even drink but I’m not trying to ban alcohol. So, what you did, man, you let these women come into the workforce, now we make less money, you got kids raising themselves on TikTok, we need to go back to like 1942, maybe 1958 after we f***** up the Germans.
‘We need to put women back in the kitchen, only one man needs to be working, so as a collective man group we need to elect someone that’s gonna put women back in the kitchen, one man working, raise the wages, and build a f****** wall.’
Though it appears Strickland is well-aware of the backlash of his remarks, he continues to make them and cause offence.
Two years ago, he made headlines for admitted he would like to kill someone in the octagon after his win over Uriah Hall.
‘If you like to f****** hurt people, you’re in the right sport, man,’ he said. ‘Like, I would love nothing more than to kill somebody in the ring.
‘Nothing more. It would make me super happy. I would own that s***, too. I don’t know if that made me liable, I might have to say I’m sorry if the cops came. But I would own that s***.’
t=The 32-year-old made a string of sexist and misogynistic remarks throughout his career
He’s also expressed his desire to murder someone in the octagon and claimed he may have done outside the ring if it wasn’t for MMA
He went onto suggest he could have acted on his murderous fantasies if he wasn’t for MMA.
‘I would walk down the street with a knife or like a rock, hoping to kill somebody,’ he told Ariel Helwani. ‘And when I started training, I realised man, you’re just f****** angry.
‘There’s just something in me that I just knew that if I could just kill a human being, it would make me feel good, short time. But it’s one of those things where I think more people think like that, and I’m just the one that says it.
‘I always say that the difference between me and other people. Like, you can watch Dexter, you can watch The Punisher, and you can the movies and you think about killing. But I was on a path to where I was gonna act it out. Like, I was fantasising it, so I had my mum take me to training for the first time.
‘Once you start fantasising enough about it, you start putting yourself in situations to act out the fantasy. And training allowed me an outlet for the fantasy to stop. I would train, I’d fight, I would train, I’d fight. But if it wasn’t for that, I fantasize about it all the time.’
Strickland’s words and actions over the years led to one other UFC fighter saying he doesn’t want to be on the same card as him, let alone in the same match.
Strickland’s words have led to one other UFC fighter saying he doesn’t want to be on the same card as him
Bantamweight star Sean O’Malley said in 2021 that he was worried he could be killed by Strickland in a fight
Bantamweight star Sean O’Malley admitted in 2021 that he was worried he would be murdered by Strickland if they shared a card.
Speaking on the BroMalley Show podcast, he said: ‘Oh, I can’t get on the Sean Strickland card. I am scared that he might f****** murder me. Like actually, I probably would not want to be around that dude.
‘He kind of seems like a f****** freak and psychopath. Like if he had a chance to kill someone, he probably would do it. So it’s like I wouldn’t even want to fight on that m***********’s card.’
Though he’s registered 15 wins in his nine years in the UFC, Strickland will likely be more remembered for his bizarre rants outside the octagon.