Sean Strickland says he’ll sabotage his fights if UFC force him to compete with heart set on boxing

Sean Strickland now appears adamant that he is done with the UFC.

Strickland recently clashed with Nassourdine Imavov during an altercation between them at the UFC’s Performance Institute.

It looked very likely that this fight would take place this year but it now seems uncertain whether the middleweight champion will defend his belt at all.

Strickland recently said he was considering vacating the belt, before expanding on his thoughts in a new video posted on social media.

Reports suggest the UFC are offering him $400k show and $400k win, while he wants more.

Sean Strickland has been having pay disputes with the UFC after feeling he’s not earning what he should be as the middleweight champion.

He’s followed these comments up by talking about the damage that MMA has done to his body and whether it’s worth it for him at this stage in his career.

The current UFC middleweight champion still wants to compete, though a series of posts on X made it clear that he sees boxing as a much more attractive option.

He added more to this in a video posted on Instagram, where Strickland criticized the UFC for making fighters ruin their legacies because they don’t earn enough money to leave the sport.

The controversial star said that he’s “not gonna do it anymore” when speaking about this cycle that fighters signed to the roster can get stuck in.

Strickland closed out the video by adding that if he has no choice but to return to the Octagon, he’ll purposefully fight with a boring, reserved style.

“I want to fight. I want to box. I want to go win a boxing title. So, we’re trying to work that out but if the UFC says, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna make you fight.’ Well, I’m going to stick and move. You guys are gonna boo, hell, I’ll f—— boo with you while I’m doing it. Just stick and move, collect my check, and then move on.”

Strickland already received a response from Jake Paul following his initial series of posts on X.

The two-time champion referenced ‘The Problem Child’ again in the video he posted, having used Paul as an example of how much he could make in boxing.

“[If] Jake Paul wants to give me a big old bag of money to fight him. I’m under contract, fine, I’ll go to Zuffa. I’ll go beat your cruiserweight champ, easy.”

The Zuffa Boxing champion that Strickland is referring to is the 31-0 Jai Opetaia.