Athletes
Sean Strickland: ‘MMA Is The Ultimate Escape’
Sean Strickland Challenges Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland In Sydney, Australia
Four weeks after a dominant main victory over Abus Magomedov in July, UFC middleweight Sean Strickland was offered his first shot at a UFC title.
This weekend at UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland, he faces one of the greatest champions the sport has ever seen, Israel Adesanya. The Nigeria native has defended his middleweight title five times and, most recently, conquered his biggest rival, Alex Pereira, to regain the throne in April.
Order UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland
It’s been a long time coming for Strickland, who’s been competing in the UFC for nine years, racking up 14 wins in the process. While he’s constantly been climbing to the top of the 185-pound division, there wasn’t any intrinsic value driving him towards an ultimate goal - it was the money.
“How much are you guys going to pay me to do this,” Strickland joked. “I’m fighting for a title, but when I’m 50 years old and my body doesn’t work, am I going to think, ‘Oh man, I fought for a title,’ or am I going to be on a stack of money and say, ‘Life is good?’ Give me the belt and I’ll auction that off to the highest bidder.”
But, for Strickland, this is the biggest fight of his life. A win this weekend would mean Strickland can finally call himself the best middleweight fighter on the planet. While many chase that title for their entire lives, Strickland says it would interest him for about “an hour.”
“I’m a soft man; I wear my heart on my sleeve,” Strickland said. “If you could go tell the 13, 14-year-old me dropping out of high school that I’d be here, I’d be like, ‘You’re f****** high.’ In perspective, it’s a big moment.
How To Watch UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland
“Winning the belt would be awesome, but, at the end of the day, it means nothing. The car you drive means nothing, what you wear means nothing. It’s all bull****. It’s all status symbols given to you to make you want to like and give up more of your life to reach these status symbols.”
At the heart of it all, Strickland just loves fighting. The materialistic items that Strickland could buy with the money he’s earned from fighting mean nothing to him. On UFC 293 Countdown, Strickland briefly opened up about his past, allowing his fans to see the sentimental side of him that’s often masked by his outspoken character.
Strickland said he grew up around an abusive, alcoholic father, and a racist grandfather, so he gravitated toward similar behavior. It wasn’t until the first time Strickland walked into a gym as a kid that all his anger went away. Strickland felt happy for the first time in his life.
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“It’s fun,” Strickland said of fighting. “Everyday people wake up, they go to their eight-hour job, they sit in traffic, they buy s*** they don’t need, they buy s*** they don’t want. They’re told that if they don’t buy [a particular] car they aren’t worth it. We judge men by the value in their pocket and not the value inside them. And to me, I love fighting because it gives you money and allows you to live, but fighting is the last little bit of sanity for me in this world.
“Americans are all f***** up. We’re all fat, we all like to drink, we’re all depressed, we all sit on our phones, we all live on Amazon. MMA is the ultimate escape. You go to a gym, you’re surrounded by brothers, you bleed with your friends, you try to kill your friends. It is truly a little bit of humanity that we have left, that the corporations haven’t stripped from us.”
Now two decades later, Strickland’s leading source of happiness is now displayed on the world stage. At UFC 293, Strickland makes the journey to Syndey, Australia to fight Adesanya, a man Strickland’s been digging at since July of last year.
Preview Every Fight On UFC 293
At the UFC 276 press conference, Strickland focused more on verbally attacking Adesanya rather than his actual opponent, Pereira. From there on out, both athletes have voiced their displeasure for one another through various interviews.
Strickland isn’t engaging with Adesanya as a method of “mental warfare.” He believes he’s simply stating what others are afraid to say, and if the truth hurts, it’s not his problem.
“I don’t think there is mental warfare, I just say facts,” Strickland said of his past engagements with Adesanya. “I don’t make things up as I go, I’m just saying who Izzy is as a person. Maybe one day Izzy will look in the mirror and decides to be a man. Maybe one day, what I say gets into him and he decides to be a man, but I don’t know if that day will happen.
“I’m sure Izzy is a nice enough guy once you get past who he is as a person…Izzy sucks.”
When it comes to the fight itself, Strickland’s rather quiet. It’s not that he doesn’t want to give away a secret gameplan, since he said it could be thrown out the window the second the fight starts, but it’s that he praises Adesanya’s skill set and knows that he’s an underdog going into the fight this weekend.
“Everybody fighting Izzy is an underdog,” Strickland said. “He’s a gigantic, tall kickboxer. I’m ready to embrace my inner [Michael] Bisping and give a little bit to the Gods… Maybe wrestle, maybe not. It’s going to be a good time."
UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland took place live from Qudos Arena in Sydney, Australia on September 9, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
