Morning Report: Sean Strickland goes off on fighter pay: ‘UFC doesn’t do the right things’ (2024)

Sean Strickland never holds back what’s on his mind.

Love him or hate him, Strickland is an undeniably honest individual. During his brief title reign as the UFC middleweight champion, "Tarzan" attracted some negative press and attention for that trait ahead of his UFC 297 fight week. Unfortunately for him, that was where the reign ended when Dricus du Plessis defeated him via split decision in January.

Strickland, 33, has since expressed his frustration and belief that the judges and country of Canada — where the fight was held — conspired against him. For a period after, Strickland was insistent on only rematching du Plessis and if it didn't happen he believed it was because the company had turned against him. Ultimately, the former champion wants to keep getting paid handsomely for his efforts and he'll keep fighting. He'll do so against Paulo Costa at UFC 302 this Saturday night, but that doesn't mean he isn't still skeptical of the promotion's business practices.

“Sometimes you gotta get ready to f*cking throw away your entire career if you don’t get your sh*t, you know,” Strickland told Daniel Cormier. “Sometimes you gotta have that craziness to you. I’ll do whatever it takes. It’s just doing the f*cking right things, man. Like, UFC doesn’t do the right things. It doesn’t f*cking do the right things. It doesn’t do the right things with most their roster.

“Like, if you go look at what these guys that run [the UFC] you see what they’re making to what guys get paid, it’s f*cking sh*t, dude. The UFC does not do the f*cking right things, and unless you hold them at f*cking gunpoint, they ain’t gonna f*cking do it.

“That’s all f*cking business these days,” he continued. “All these f*cking corporation leeches. They’re like, just how it f*ckng works, man. Look at the working man f*cking gap, bro, and again, my gap is a lot f*cking smaller than your guys’ gap, but just how it works. Corporations are just f*cking succubuses.”

June will be another big month for the 185-pound ranks starting with Strickland vs. Costa. The next title tilt and first defense for du Plessis isn't yet known, but most expect it to be the Israel Adesanya grudge match.

The UFC debuts in Saudi Arabia on June 22. Former champion Robert Whittaker will look to hand Khamzat Chimaev his first career loss in what is being called the next title eliminator fight. That leaves Strickland likely needing another win after a potential Costa victory before returning to a title bid.

Whittaker will be Chimaev's first ranked middleweight opponent after "Borz's" previous divisional return matchup with Costa fell through at UFC 294 this past October. Instead, he defeated former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman via a majority decision. Strickland, of course, isn't too fond of the direction the UFC is taking with the batch of contenders.

“Right now, a f*cking guy who’s never fought at middleweight makes sense,” Strickland scoffed about the UFC contender process. “So, it’s like Chimaev is the one they want or Whittaker, but ideally they want Chimaev on the f*cking spreadsheet for what makes sense. A guy who’s never actually fought at middleweight is the No. 1 contender.

“When you talk about rankings and what makes sense and what do you have to do. F*ck it and f*ck the UFC. I’ll fight, give me my f*cking paycheck, and I’ll walk away.”

$$$. Sean Strickland calls BKFC ‘f*cking trash’; Mike Perry places huge wager backing Paulo Costa at UFC 302

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Odds. Nick Diaz, Tony Ferguson open as massive underdogs ahead of UFC Abu Dhabi

Moment. Eric Nicksick shares hilarious story of when he realized UFC 302’s Sean Strickland was a superstar

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Between the Link.

UFC 302 Pre-Fight Presser.

UFC 302 Fighters Predict the Main Event.

Embedded 4.

State of lightweight.

Free fight.

Seanbedded 4.

Khabib at K-Dojo.

Aspinall at the HQ.

Fancy UFC 302 co-main event prediction.

Dakota Ditcheva’s Media Tour.

Almighty training camp.

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

Nice.

Question time.

Stats.

Diamonds.

Clean funk.

Comeback.

Jiri things.

Hype.

Woof.

Ready.

Rematch.

Phenom.

Saori Oshima (14-4) vs. Andressa Romero (6-4-1); Invicta FC 55, June 28

Yoko Higashi (8-4) vs. Taylor Guardado (4-2); Invicta FC 55, June 28

I wonder if Strickland’s tune will change someday if he recaptures the title.

Happy Friday, gang. UFC 302 should be an interesting one. Enjoy and see you in June. Thanks for reading!

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.