Sean Strickland criticizes ‘brutal’ UFC matchmaker for benching fighters: ‘Everybody hates you’

Sean Strickland isn’t afraid to call out his friend UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.

In a recent podcast interview, Strickland anticipated receiving backlash from the UFC for criticizing the actions of one in all the promotion’s sponsors.

Strickland’s regular rants have previously been shut down by his microphone getting cut off before he could proceed causing issues for the promotion.

In that exact same podcast appearance, the present middleweight champion was critical of the way in which that one of the crucial essential people within the promotion can impact a fighter’s profession.

You’re Dana White for the day, what’s the one change you’d make to the UFC?

Sean Strickland goes off on UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby for the way he deals with fighters

Apart from the time when a contest-winner got to book a UFC fight, this role falls to the promotion’s matchmakers after they meet on the promotion’s headquarters.

One technique to get these people in your side as a member of the roster is to do them a favor by stepping as much as take short notice fights

Sean Strickland has done this on several occasions and even won the middleweight title by taking the UFC 293 essential event on just over a month’s notice and upsetting Israel Adesanya.

That doesn’t mean he’s in favor of how the promotion can use opportunities like this against fighters, with the middleweight champion calling out matchmaker Sean Shelby particularly.

“This guy [Shelby] is so f—— brutal,” Strickland said on the Shawn Ryan Show. “You possibly can have a boring fight or something, and this m———– will bench you for like eight months. Or you could possibly say, ‘Hey Sean, I would like a fight.’ He’ll call you two weeks out from a fight, like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a fight for you.’ Dude, two weeks out. You possibly can’t give me just a little more f—— notice? And in the event you say no, he’ll bench your ass. Yeah, the UFC is f—— brutal.”

Strickland did say that together with the UFC bosses loving fighters that take these opportunities, short notice fights also provide you with the largest pay boosts.

Nonetheless, in addition they include the danger of stepping contained in the Octagon with lower than ideal preparations and risking your standing on the roster.

Strickland previously said that he felt pressured to take his UFC 312 rematch with Dricus du Plessis despite not being ready for it because, in his words, “you don’t say no to the master.”

“Everybody hates coping with him,” Strickland added when addressing Shelby. “I’m friends with him, but he was my [matchmaker] at welterweight. Dude, he was such a f—— c—. I say this as a friend, Sean. You’re a pleasant guy, but everybody f—— hates you.”