Sean Strickland, the UFC middleweight champion, recently admitted in an interview that he doesn’t place much importance on holding the prestigious UFC championship belt. He stated that while the excitement of winning was momentary, he’s more focused on increasing the balance of his bank account.
UFC on TNT Sports uploaded a video of the interaction between journalist Caroline Pearce and Sean Strickland. Discussing his experience as a UFC champion, Strickland, who’s also known as ‘Tarzan’, said, “I mean, it’s cool for like, the first hour. But at the end of the day guys, it don’t matter. You know, when I’m retired in five, six years, it don’t matter. I just want a big f**king bank account.”
In September 2023, Strickland faced off against Israel Adesanya for the middleweight championship at UFC 293, which took place at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. The 32-year-old fighter outclassed ‘The Last Stylebender,’ winning the match by unanimous decision after 25 minutes of intense battle.
Strickland is now set to defend his title against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297, which is the first UFC pay-per-view event of 2024, taking place on January 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley shared his thoughts on the upcoming fight in a recent episode of the BroMalleyShow.
According to O’Malley, if Strickland can perform at the same level as he did against Adesanya, he stands a good chance of winning the fight against du Plessis. O’Malley said, “If Sean Strickland shows up like he did against Izzy, I think he beats DDP… I mean, he seemed very calm against Izzy… Five fives against Strickland is a nightmare… I don’t know… I just have a feeling that Strickland gets the job done.”
