Sean Strickland Quotes & Statements

“Let me know when you are ready Strickland”

– via X, directly addressing the new champion to signal his readiness for a potential rematch or future clash.

“I was watching your fight and I told my coach 'that's how I want my fight to be'. You're a way bigger savage than me my dog.”

– via Engage, giving props to Joshua Van backstage and praising his performance and fighting style.

“He is a good guy, man. We're in the game of fighting. Would you guys really want me to go out there and [say], 'Yeah dude, Chimaev, you are a really nice guy'? No, you want me to go motherf**k this guy. I do it for you guys.”

– via Post Fight Show, sharing an honest admission regarding the necessity of pre fight animosity to build excitement for the fans despite personal respect for the opponent.

“F**king Nassourdine. You are really get me on this like f**king racism again?”

– via Press Conference, responding to a callout from Nassourdine Imavov by addressing previous tensions and accusations of prejudice.

“I just want to apologize to my American fans, to my Muslim fans, and Christian fans. I went too f**king hard, I admit it. I respect all of you guys. Chechnya's great fighters are savage. This guy [Chimaev] is a savage. I should be a better f**king example. I try to sell these fights for you f**kers. I appreciate you.”

– via Post Fight Press Conference, issuing a sincere apology for pre fight rhetoric while showing respect for the opponent's heritage and the fans.

“This fking coward tries to kick me in the ns like a psy. This b*tch didn't even make weight you cheating fk”

– via UFC 328 Ceremonial WeighIn, erupting at Khamzat Chimaev after a physical altercation on stage and a weighin process that the challenger deemed fraudulent.

“This is wild coming from me but Josh goes way too far. Chandler's wife, Ilia Topuria's ex... I know it's the WWE thing but it's too much.”

– via UFC White House Press Conference, Sean Strickland criticizes Josh Hokit for personal verbal attacks he deems excessive, even by combat sports standards

“Let me tell you about this fking p*ssy. I was there when you walked off the mat and had COVID and retired. His dad, Ali, had to call him and say, ‘You better get back there and make me money.' I almost died in a motorcycle accident. Did I fking quit? Did I fking retire? You let the common cold retire you. Don’t talk about me being a b*tch. You had a cough, and you quit this fking sport”

– via UFC 328 Press Conference, delivering his final, brutal assessment of Khamzat Chimaev’s mental fortitude.

“You’re making fun of child abuse, this is why you’re a f***ing animal”

– via UFC 328 Press Conference, calling out the champion Khamzat Chimaev for mocking the domestic violence Sean endured during his childhood.

“Ankalaev I think beats Chimaev. Ankalaev will probably be the next champion. Ankalaev is one of the best 205ers that I've sparred with”

– via MMA Junkie, praising the technical dominance of Magomed Ankalaev while assessing the elite landscape of the upper weight classes.

“That’s a hard one, dude. This is why Alex is going to excel at heavyweight... But Francis is big and black, bro. I don’t know. If I had to pick who I want to fight, I don’t know... They both suck”

– via Home of Fight, giving a characteristically blunt comparison of his sparring sessions with Alex Pereira and Francis Ngannou.

“Who wants to watch this guy go dry hump everybody? If I can’t do it, just delete the UFC, guys. They don't want to watch a man try to dry hump you for 25 minutes... they don't want to watch a boring ass fight”

– via UFC 328 Pre Fight Press Conference (aired on Paramount), mocking the wrestling heavy style of the champion Khamzat Chimaev.

“You’re almost 30, acting like Jake Paul when he was 13. Stop, bro. You made it...it reminds you of a WWE skit”

– via UFC 328 Media Day, roasting the street interview content and public persona of heavyweight prospect Josh Hokit.

“You will never fight for the belt, you are a fking r*tard. If you wanna get some advice from me, you fking r*tard, stop training with the champ”

– via UFC 328 Pre Fight Media Scrum, delivering a scorched earth response to Brendan Allen after the middleweight contender leaked details of Sean’s past training sessions with Khamzat Chimaev.

“Part of him knows if we wrestle, I'm just gonna counter wrestle and get up. Or he knows he can't take me down and we kickbox for 5 rounds. He's gonna get frustrated and I'm just gonna tag him at will”

– via UFC 328 Promotional Media, dismissing the invincible grappling aura of Khamzat Chimaev ahead of their Newark showdown.

“You think you're tough, we'll see who handles deep water better. You're gonna drown”

– via UFC 328 Promotional Media, issuing his signature ultimatum to Khamzat Chimaev ahead of their championship clash.

“This is why you are a coward. We will jump you, my Muslim friends will jump you. You might live in America, but you have no idea what it's like to be an American or a man. If I ever said I'll jump you, I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror. Coward.”

– via X (formerly Twitter), firing back at Khamzat Chimaev and attacking the Borz persona after the champion suggested the Newark community would handle Strickland outside the cage.

“All I’m gonna do is pull my gun out, and I might shoot him. If you come up to me with three Chechnyans that don’t speak English, I’m going to pull my gun, and I’m going to shoot each and every one of you”

– via The Mac Life, escalating his psychological warfare with Khamzat Chimaev to a level of volatility rarely seen in the UFC

“He's a one trick pony one hard punch, tries to dry h*mp you and gets tired. I truly believe I'm better than him without a doubt”

– via The Mac Life, delivering a scathing technical critique of Khamzat Chimaev just days before their UFC 328 title clash on May 9

“I truly believe I’m better than him, without a doubt... I think he’s a weak man... Look at [Paulo] Costa, bro. You got punked by Costa, dude... Whenever people do such theatrics to get into a fight, you just know it is cowardice”

– via his latest media appearance, continuing his scorched earth psychological campaign against Khamzat Chimaev just eight days before UFC 328.

“I'm sure Dana White is a sociopath. Let's be honest, at that level of like what he has accomplished, the kind of s**t he deals with, I'm sure he is a super narcissistic sociopath... He is a sick f**k, dude”

– via social media, reacting to Dana White’s controversial comments regarding the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

“I think we die enemies... The shiy thing is that whoever wins is gonna have bragging rights, and whoever doesn’t is just gonna have to eat sh*t till they die. I think me and Khamzat, we die enemies”

– via The Mac Life, laying out the grim reality of his relationship with Khamzat Chimaev ahead of their UFC 328 title clash on May 9.

“We've accepted Alex because Alex is a fking American. Lives in America, loves fking guns, likes fking p***y... You want to talk about 'The American Dream', bro, that's Alex. 6 foot 4 giant fking angry Brazilian. Yeah, you're Brazilian, but you're also American”

– via social media, giving his unique and unfiltered endorsement of Alex Pereira as the personification of The American Dream.

“Listen motherfcker, I know I'm gonna win. I beat this goat fcker in training, I'll do it in a fight”

– via a chaotic live phone call on Adin Ross's Kick stream, responding to the news that Arman Tsarukyan had bet against him

“I will win this f***ing fight guys”

– via X, firing the opening salvo of his training camp for his upcoming title fight at UFC 328 against Khamzat Chimaev.

“Keep running Chechen wh*re.... I know the score, you know the score....”

– via X, following up his UFC Houston victory by taunting Khamzat Chimaev over their shared training history

“I guarantee Chimaev would go to the [Epstein] island. That dirty little f**ker”

– via the UFC Houston post fight press conference, launching an unprompted attack on Khamzat Chimaev's character after his TKO victory over Anthony Hernandez

“He said, 'Hey, you flipped off my 7 year old daughter and she thinks you hate Mexicans.' I do feel bad for it”

– via UFC Houston post fight press conference, explaining his surprising backstage apology to Anthony "Fluffy" Hernandez

“Listen dude, I’ve moved past you. I’ve already beat you, relax. Either you get the belt or I do. If you get it I’ll take it from you, and if I get it you’ll lose to me”

– via Full Send MMA, dismissing Nassourdine Imavov’s demand for a rematch

“Listen here, you motherf**kers... There is only one motherf**ker who stands and bangs, your f**king guy wrestles. I fight more like a Mexican than that motherf**ker”

– via volatile ceremonial weigh in at UFC Houston, unloading on Anthony Hernandez and the pro Hernandez Texas crowd

“Buckley is the type of guy who gets kicked out of a store for being obnoxious and then says 'it's because im black, youre racist' lmao bro youre bad at fighting and youre even worse at being an influence.”

– via Instagram, continuing his relentless verbal assault on Joaquin Buckley following their public fallout over race and rhetoric

“Lmao ive never lost a game of racist chicken”

– via Instagram, responding to Joaquin Buckley after the St. Louis native confronted him for using the N word during a heated exchange

“Buckley is the black version of a Karen”

– via Instagram, firing Shot at Joaquin Buckley during a volatile social media exchange

“It’s kind of weird how the UFC deals with Chimaev. You brought a guy, and they fight once a year. Who is like a fking Madonna... How much money does that dictator give him under the fking table? The guy doesn't need to fight, dude. He is best friends with a f**king warlord”

– via ESPN MMA, escalating his verbal assault on the middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev

“You brought a guy in that fights once a year... He's just gonna sit on that fking belt and wait until they force him to fight. Every time this f**king guy fights, he has a mysterious injury”

– via ESPN MMA, venting his frustration over Khamzat Chimaev’s activity level and its impact on the middleweight division

“When I was a kid, I used to watch you, bro. I’d be in my fking boxer shorts in the living room, watching you scrap, dog. It was dope, dude.”

– via Fight Back MMA

“I’ve been training with these little Chechens, and whatever Dagestanis my whole life... You’ll train with these guys and it’s a thousand percent off the gate. They take you down, and there’s a voice in your head that’s almost like, ‘F***ck. This guy doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t quit.' But then the moment you push back and you just keep fighting the good fight, all of a sudden they just start breaking”

– via Jon Bernard Kairouz podcast, giving a raw and controversial breakdown of the "invincibility" myth surrounding Dagestani and Chechen fighters

“Before the Dricus fight, I was f***ing riding with [motocross rider] Axell Hodges and I broke my shoulder. So I was in Colombia getting stem cells on my shoulder, and they hit me up for the fight... The thing with the UFC, you don’t say no. They are p*mps. You don’t say no to the masters. So I was kind of backed up into a corner taking that fight.”

– via Kairouz Bros podcast, revealing for the first time that he fought Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 with a broken shoulder.

“No, I don't want Whittaker. It doesn't do anything for me. If I beat Whittaker, there's no title shot ahead of that. It doesn't do anything... It's like the girl at the party, everybody's f***ed. And you’re just like... maybe if it’s 3 AM and there’s nobody left, I might try it... Whittaker's body count is too high”

– via Jon Bernard Kairouz podcast, explaining his decision to turn down a fight with the former champion in favor of a rising contender.

“These Brazilians will die for nothing. You could put a Cheeto in the ring and they'll die for the Cheeto”

– via Instagram, reflecting on a high intensity training session with Michel Pereira at Xtreme Couture. Strickland was referencing the legendary "no quit" attitude and willingness to turn every sparring session into a war that is often associated with Brazilian fighters.

“Aspinall s**ks dude, he took the easy way out.”

– via Adin Ross reacted to Tom Aspinall eye poke controversy

“Middleweight division is on f***ing ice, dude. You got Chimaev the w****. He has ramadan, then he has a surgery, then he's gonna fight Nassourdine in a year and just dry hump Nassourdine, then he's going to go back home and kiss the dictator, maybe his ovaries are hurting. The middleweight division doesn't exist, I'd be better off trying to fight for the 205 belt now that the middleweight belt, it don't exist anymore.”

– commenting on Khamzat Chimaev's delayed return and criticism of the middleweight division.

“Going to be fluffy”

– hints that Anthony Hernandez is next opponent

“I don't want [Israel Adesanya]. I'm not going to fight Izzy. I think it's the easier fight for me, but I want to fight that little Chechen wh*re. I want to fight somebody like 'Fluffy'. He puts me in title contention, especially with him, because all he does [is grapple]. He's like the American Chimaev. If I just go and outwrestle that f*cker for five rounds, it's like, 'All right, f*ck you, wh*re. Go beat your cans and let me know when you're ready.' That's what I'm looking for”

“Caio is my buddy but he's an idiot. He trained with us and was useless... Me 'What's wrong with you?' Caio 'I'm cutting, I'm an alternate.' So you're giving up 4 weeks of your camp cutting weight twice while having a fight coming up? Whoever told you to do that, please hit him.”