Like many fighters, Sean Strickland sees his chosen profession as a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Prizefighters have their respective reasons for doing what they do. For those like UFC middleweight Sean Strickland, their chosen path has been a saving grace.
Strickland, who completed a five-fight win streak on Saturday by defeating TUF 13 alum Uriah Hall, spoke candidly about it during his Octagon interview with Paul Felder.
“I just wanna fight. I wanna fight, I wanna make money. As long as there’s that (UFC) logo under my feet, and I’m fighting, I’m happy,” he said.
“(Fighting) gives me purpose. If I wasn’t in the UFC, I’d probably be cooking meth in a trailer in prison. I’m grateful for the fans, to the UFC, you guys that gave me purpose. And I appreciate that.”
Hall and Strickland were former training partners right before the latter began his UFC career. After the dust cleared, Strickland expressed nothing but respect and admiration.
“He’s the guy that I’ve always respected and he kind of scared me because I came up watching his highlights. It was an honor to fight Uriah, man. I appreciate the battle.
The 30-year-old Strickland now improves to a record of 24-3. As for Hall, who was celebrating his 37th birthday on fight night, he snapped a four-fight win streak as he dropped to a win-loss slate of 17-10.