Sean Strickland returns to action after a lengthy suspension, and he’s going right back into the fire against rising contender Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez on February 21st. You could say their UFC Houston
main event has title implications, but Strickland isn’t buying it. When the outspoken middleweight looks at current champion Khamzat Chimaev, he doesn’t see an active champion. He sees someone camping the belt.
“It’s kinda weird what the UFC did with Chimaev,” Strickland told ESPN MMA in a new interview. “You brought a guy in that fights once a year who’s like Madonna, who gets like, how much money does that dictator give him under the table? Like, the guy doesn’t need to fight, dude. He’s best friends with a warlord. He doesn’t need to fight. Dude gets gifted G-Wagons.”
“So you have somebody who is just gonna sit on a belt and wait and wait until they force him to fight. They wanted him to fight Nassourdine [Imavov], whatever the guy’s name is. He’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t wanna fight you, my brother.’ Like, what are you talking about? It’s not how the sport works, dude. Like, go fight that guy!”
While Strickland could play the game and fight infrequently and try to use a single win and his ranking to try and wait for an opportunistic title fight, that doesn’t appeal to him.
“The middleweight division, man, from a pure money perspective, you would make more money not fighting for the belt than you would fighting for the belt,” he said. “Say Chimaev goes and fights Nassourdine in six months. Well, let’s say Chimaev sprains his pinky like he normally does. Now he takes another year off. So it’s like a year off, for two years.”
“It’s like, the belt isn’t even in my brain anymore. I don’t even think about it. I’ll make significantly more money just fighting. Whereas it’s sh–ty, but you wanna wait a year and a half and not fight? Or just keep fighting and fighting good guys and maybe taking an L? I’ll just go fight good guys, maybe take an L, and I’ll triple my pay.”
“We’re in here to make money and I’ll make significantly more money not fighting for a belt, or waiting for Chimaev’s pinky to feel better,” Strickland declared. “It’s like every time this guy fights he has a mysterious injury. Why wait?”
