UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland continues to fall on X (formerly Twitter) over his promotion’s refusal to pay him well for the fight.
“I have to be honest, if things don’t change with the UFC, I’m a little over it,” Strickland tweeted, noting that the UFC paid Conor McGregor $30 million, while Zuffa Boxing (via the Saudis) paid Conor Benn $15 million. He then suggested dropping the strap and losing his UFC contract at 205 pounds. and follow Jake Paul’s fight. Paul jumped right into that conversation and said he was interested.
“I haven’t decided if I want to nuke my contract, but I have to say putting guys on (Jake Paul) sounds a lot better than the UFC right now,” Strickland wrote in a new series of tweets.
“I think I’m just frustrated because my body is crashing because MMA training is brutal,” he added. “My heart is just not in MMA anymore. Inguinal tear, AC joint separation. I just don’t think my heart is in MMA anymore. There’s more money in boxing and it’s a lot easier.”
Strickland then shared a photo called “the last MMA camp,” which showed fluid draining from his injured knee. There is no doubt that MMA is a tough sport and the wear and tear of grappling and grappling is insane. “Tarzan” has 18 years of MMA damage in 39 fights and has been in several recent fights. recurrent shoulder and knee problems. These problems do not disappear in boxing, but the training is less destructive.
Strickland wants to believe it would be easy enough to drop the belt, fight out the contract, and then fight Jake Paul. The reality is that he has the iron fist of a contract with the UFC, and they’re not going to let anyone — especially a champion who talks about fighting for the competition — get out easily.
The UFC could fix this by giving Sean a raise, but they may be less interested now that it’s a public tug-of-war. Meanwhile, Strickland is crazy enough to fight the UFC at his own financial loss rather than get paid less than he thinks he’s worth. Right now, the only war we see him in is versus his own promotion.