Newark — It’s a good thing newly crowned (or re-crowned) middleweight champ Sean Strickland got the win at UFC 328 on Saturday.
“I talked a lot of sh*t, so when you talk a lot of sh*t and lose, it hurts a lot more,” Strickland (31-7) said following his split decision victory over Khamzat Chimaev, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.
Strickland finished the surging Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez back in February to jump the line at middleweight, securing a title shot that he then ferociously promoted. The always outspoken American sparked a war of words with Chimaev that included name calling, allegations of bestiality, and even death threats.
After the fight, Strickland admitted that he had taken it too far. Backstage with the media, he explained why.
“I sell fights. Look at the UFC, how f*cking boring it is. Really, the UFC is so f*cking boring. Do you even know half the roster?” Strickland questioned. “Other than Alex [Pereira], and Alex doesn’t even talk, he’s just big and scary. That guy just knocks everybody out. But other than Alex, it’s just f*cking boring.”
“I go f*cking so hard on everybody, and there’s always truth to what I say. There’s always truth to what I say, but at the end of the day all the hate is out of me. I need the hate battery recharged.”
Strickland also revealed that while sparring with Johnny Eblen the Tuesday prior to the fight, he separated his shoulder. “He f*cking shoots on me, I hit this brick-ass wall, and I separated my shoulder. So I had a grade one AC joint separation on Tuesday.” That led Strickland to holding back while warming up ahead of the fight on Saturday. And next time, Strickland will train in a cage, not in a gym with a brick wall.
Asked how this win compares to his first title victory against Israel Adensanya, Strickland demonstrated that he has no more admiration for titles now than he ever did.
“I don’t give a f*ck, dude. It’s a f*cking belt, it means jack-all f*cking nothing. This is the problem with the world we live in,” he opined. “You guys are always chasing titles that men make, like men will give you a title, ‘oh I’m a CEO, I’m a CFO.’ No one gives a f*ck, bro, it’s a title, it’s not real.”
“The biggest superpower in life is gratitude,” he added. Strickland recalled moving to Las Vegas at 28-years-old after a serious motorcycle accident, living in a $1200 a month apartment. “I was stoked though, I was stoked.” He had the same reaction after buying his first house, and his second. “Whenever you have gratitude, it’s amazing. If I would have lost this fight, I would have went home, the sun would have risen, I would have had a good breakfast, I would have seen my wife, and been like ‘I’m the luckiest man alive.’ And once you have that, it don’t matter.”
As for his underdog status ahead of UFC 328, “I’m an underdog in the bets, I’m an underdog in my head, I’m an underdog in life,” stated Strickland. “I don’t even think about it. If I was ever a f*cking favorite, it’d be weird.”
Watch the full UFC 328 post-fight press conference with Sean Strickland above.
