Sean Strickland has been warned by a former world champion that his days atop the UFC could also be numbered after one other poor performance.
The previous middleweight champion had his nose broken by Dricus Du Plessis last night within the important event of UFC 312 after a 12 months of constructing a rematch with the South African. He lost every round on all but one scorecard, which awarded him a degree, and now faces an uphill battle back to title contention.
While Strickland is a fan favorite, his fight style is especially defensive and slow-paced, which makes for difficult fights to look at for the neutral and the pay-per-view buyer. Coupled along with his outlandish antics within the media, he has made himself a difficult figure to support for the UFC brass.
Sean Strickland warned UFC 312 showing may mark the top of his top level profession
Your complete presentation that Sean Strickland offers, from his wacky character to his press conference appearances, has made him one of the vital fascinating figures in MMA. Nonetheless, he doesn’t are inclined to back that up with ‘wars’ within the octagon, and tends to fight a conservative and defensive style.
And former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson believes that the entire package may make his path back to a shot on the belt very difficult, particularly at this point in his profession. Speaking on the Weighing In podcast, Thomson said: “You’re not getting one other title shot for a very long time.
“Not with the things that come out of your mouth, the things that you just’ve said. All that build-up, it doesn’t work any more now in the event you’re going to simply fight like that.
“It’s done, now you’re going to be behind the road on this division. And it is perhaps some time, it’ll be years, two-and-a-half, perhaps even three years if he ever does get back.”
Dana White joked that he will not be keen on Sean Strickland headlining pay-per-view events
Strickland’s pre-fight antics have made him popular with the core UFC audience, but mainstream news and even political figures aren’t so keen. His second headliner in Australia on a card that was funded by tourism board budgeting proved controversial in Latest South Wales, with many calling for him to lose.
Nonetheless, Dana White insists that it isn’t a lot the local government who want Strickland out of the important event scene. In reality, he joked on the post-fight press conference, if anyone says ‘not Strickland’, before booking a serious pay-per-view headliner, it’s White himself.
“I try this,” he joked when a media member asked if the federal government ever quietly attempt to influence against a Strickland important event. “Are you kidding me? I try this! Everyone knows my stance on this, we’re going to take guys and girls that say and do loads of things.
“I’m an enormous believer in free speech and it probably seems worse if you come here because your media are such weak human beings. I believed we had weak media, you guys win hands down.”
