Las Vegas, NV — Sean Strickland was not entirely pleased with his five-round split decision win over Jack Hermansson atop the UFC Vegas 47 card on Saturday.
And that has little to do with the questionable score that went the other way.
“You know what it is man, I let the pressure get the better of me,” Strickland (25-3) told media outlets following the bout, at the UFC Apex. “I knew I was better than him. You guys knew I was better than him. He was a guy that I should have, maybe should not have finished, but he should have been more bloodied and messed up after the fight, but he wasn’t, and that’s because I took my foot off the gas. I just coasted in that fight.”
“It is what it is,” he added. “That’s what you get for being a p*ssy. No bonus for me.”
That pressure came from conversations about title shots, Strickland admitted. But despite the fact that he’s circling the title picture, nothing seems to silence Sean Strickland. “It’s kind of hard, dude. I dropped out of high school. I probably only completed a couple of grades in my life. So what do you f*cking expect, for me to put a piece of duct tape over my mouth and walk through the world? Give me a f*cking break.”
He’s also hoping to slip into a title shot, especially given that Israel Adesanya is set to take part in his second rematch in recent memory. “I don’t want to see another repeat. Let’s have one white trash motherf*cker have a crack at it.”
Strickland made waves recently by claiming he wanted to kill an opponent in the octagon. He doubled down on his sadistic streak, telling Cageside Press on Saturday that when it comes to hurting people, “I f*cking love it, dude. I f*cking love it. I told you, with Jack, as the round goes on, you start seeing black eye, the blood, it’s fucking fun, it gets my d*ck hard, you know? That’s probably the only thing in life that I enjoy. It makes it a lot funner when they can’t fight back though. That’s the problem, Jack could fight back.”
Despite that, at the same time, he respects his opponents. “I’m always cool with every opponent, because every loss I had f*cking haunts me. I go to bed at night thinking about their names, I think about it. So every time I beat a man, I like to show them respect and dignity as a fellow man, as a fellow warrior. You stepped in the octagon, you fought me, there’s no f*cking shame in that. Go to bed, be happy.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 47 post-fight press scrum with Sean Strickland above. More coverage from the event can be found below.
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Nick Maximov
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Sean Strickland
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Brendan Allen
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Bryan Battle
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Julian Erosa
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Hakeem Dawodu