{"id":826736,"date":"2025-02-13T11:13:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/sean-strickland-sends-brutal-warning-to-little-man-islam-makhachev-after-teasing-middleweight-move\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T11:13:29","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T17:13:29","slug":"sean-strickland-sends-brutal-warning-to-little-man-islam-makhachev-after-teasing-middleweight-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/13\/sean-strickland-sends-brutal-warning-to-little-man-islam-makhachev-after-teasing-middleweight-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland sends brutal warning to \u2018little man\u2019 Islam Makhachev after teasing middleweight move"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<article id=\"post-172287\">\n<p><strong>Sean Strickland has warned Islam Makhachev that he may want to think twice about a potential move up in weight.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The lightweight champion has now broken the record for most UFC title defences at 155lb, but isn\u2019t keen to challenge former training partner <a href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/belal-muhammad\">Belal Muhammad<\/a> for the welterweight belt. Instead, he wants to bulk up to 185lb and challenge the winner of Strickland\u2019s fight with <a href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/dricus-du-plessis\">Dricus Du Plessis<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/ufc-312\">UFC 312<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>However, Strickland isn\u2019t so sure about that idea and believes that Makhachev should stay around his weight class instead of moving up.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><svg width=\"20\" height=\"20\"><use href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/#list-arrow-svg\" \/><\/svg><strong>Who is Sean Strickland?<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2024\/05\/28\/who-is-sean-strickland-get-to-know-controversial-former-ufc-middleweight-champion-ahead-of-ufc-302\/\">Get to know the controversial former UFC Middleweight champion <\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Sean Strickland hits back at Islam Makhachev\u2019s attempted move to middleweight<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/sean-strickland\">Sean Strickland<\/a> is the current top contender for middleweight gold, after losing the belt to Dricus Du Plessis in January of last year. He had to go through a hellacious list of contenders in his run to the belt in  2023, and is now getting another shot.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sean Strickland GOES CRAZY On Chinese New Year; Islam Makhachev, Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kIGzDuvBsQw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>And he believes that <a href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/islam-makhachev\">Islam Makhachev<\/a> will struggle up at the weight given that he is a considerably smaller individual. The lightweight champion finds it tough to make the 155lb limit, but is believed to walk around at about 180lb, which would be light for middleweight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re a little man, bro,\u201d Strickland told Helen Yee in a recent interview. \u201cYou ain\u2019t going to wrestle me, dog, you\u2019re this f***ing big, dog [points to his hip]. It ain\u2019t going to happen. Go back to f***ing, I dont know, where is he from? Dagestan. Go back to Durkistan, bro, calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Dricus Du Plessis gives his take on Islam Makhachev ahead of UFC 312<\/h2>\n<p>While their opinions are similar in terms of how they feel about Makhachev\u2019s prospects at the weight, Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland had different ways of presenting their views. The South African noted that it would be a money fight, but cast doubt on how competitive it might be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there was ever a situation where there\u2019s no fight for me, no fight for him that makes sense, I\u2019d be more than happy to do it, easy payday,\u201d the middleweight champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1aNXVRmFLG0&#038;pp=ygUcbWFpbiBldmVudCBkcmljdXMgZHUgcGxlc3Npcw%3D%3D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Main Event<\/a>, after admitting that he may be pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2024\/12\/GettyImages-1950972990-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis greets supporters as he arrives at O.R. Tambo International Airport on January 25, 2024 in Johannesburg...\" ><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption title=\"UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis greets supporters as he arrives at O.R. Tambo International Airport on January 25, 2024 in Johannesburg...\">Photo by Lefty Shivambu\/Gallo Images\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf we get to a situation where we are not, he\u2019s an incredible fighter make no mistake,\u201d Du Plessis stated earlier in the interview. \u201cHe was so incredibly good against Moicano he once again proved why he is pound for pound best in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care how good you are (he\u2019s 30lbs lighter), he obviously trains with 185ers in his gym, he doesn\u2019t train against me, believe me, it\u2019s not the same thing. Even on a technical level like stand-up, that\u2019s just, you know, his wrestling and grappling is phenomenal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just overpowered that\u2019s what I think. It makes a massive difference, he\u2019s a big lightweight but I\u2019m a big middleweight, there\u2019s a big difference between a big lightweight and a big middleweight.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><svg width=\"20\" height=\"20\"><use href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/#list-arrow-svg\" \/><\/svg><strong>Who is Dricus Du Plessis?<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2024\/07\/30\/who-is-dricus-du-plessis-meet-the-ufc-brawler-putting-south-africa-on-the-mma-map\/\">Meet the UFC brawler putting South Africa on the MMA map<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p> Donagh Corby<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/01\/31\/sean-strickland-sends-brutal-warning-to-little-man-islam-makhachev-after-teasing-middleweight-move\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Strickland has warned Islam Makhachev that he may want to think twice about a potential move up in weight. The lightweight champion has now broken the record for most UFC title defences at 155lb, but isn\u2019t keen to challenge former training partner Belal Muhammad for the welterweight belt. Instead, he wants to bulk up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":826737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,94062],"tags":[5059,133219],"class_list":{"0":"post-826736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sends","8":"category-strickland","9":"tag-sends","10":"tag-strickland"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}