Sean Strickland is never one to hold back on controversial thoughts, even when they’re about what he considers a sub-par performance by himself.
For those of you who watched UFC Vegas 47 from first to final bell, Sean Strickland’s performance against Jack Hermansson was not exactly a rousing finale to six hours of combat sports.
After spending the past several months acting like he’s one bout of road rage away from a manslaughter charge, Stickland went into the cage and fought a careful, calculated fight. He realized early that his jab was money and his takedown defense was on point, and he rode those two ponies to a safe win. Well, it would have been safe if not for the infamously bad Nevada judging, which led to Sal D’Amato turning a clear win for Strickland into a split decision.
Don’t just take our word for it that the fight kinda sucked. Sean Strickland agrees.
“I fought like a f—king p—sy, guys. I’m sorry!” he told Michael Bisping in the cage. “I was being a pansy. I should have stayed in the pocket and thrown like I did at the end. Maybe I let the pressure get to me. I was kind of fighting like a p—sy right there.”
Strickland expanded on those thoughts during the UFC Vegas 47 post-fight press conference.
“I took my foot off the gas, I just coasted through that fight,” he said. “I don’t think I was even really trying that hard. It kind of sucks but it is what it is. That’s what you get for being a p—sy. No bonus for me.”
While Sean clearly blames himself, he also blamed some mysterious ‘suits’ — be they UFC brass or his management — for getting in his head before the fight. It also probably didn’t help that he was fighting out the last fight on his contract.
“I get a lot of fancy f—kers wearing suits and they come up to me and they start talking about title fights and things of that nature,” he said. “You hear that all the time and you start thinking ‘do I really want to risk getting knocked out when I could go for a title fight?’ So I let the fancy folks in the suits throw me off a little bit but it won’t happen again.”
At this point Strickland is hoping his status as one of the last contenders standing may earn him a title shot by default.
“Unless Cannonier wins, Izzy ran through the division,” he said. “Let’s get some fresh blood in. We don’t want to see another repeat. Let one white trash motherf—ker take a crack at it.”