{"id":896567,"date":"2026-04-03T08:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/sean-stricklands-dangerous-mouth-earning-him-a-title-shot-shows-the-ufc-no-longer-does-whats-right\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:24:20","slug":"sean-stricklands-dangerous-mouth-earning-him-a-title-shot-shows-the-ufc-no-longer-does-whats-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/sean-stricklands-dangerous-mouth-earning-him-a-title-shot-shows-the-ufc-no-longer-does-whats-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland\u2019s dangerous mouth earning him a title shot shows the UFC no longer does what\u2019s right"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sean Strickland\u2019s most dangerous weapon is his mouth, and that alone is getting him Dana White privilege.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This past February, Sean Strickland<\/a> returned to the win column with a win over Anthony Hernandez<\/a> in the UFC<\/a> Houston main event.<\/p>\n

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That marked the controversial middleweight\u2019s fifth knockout win in the premier promotion and his first in five fights.<\/p>\n

However, despite his fight style being utterly dull, it was announced by Dana White<\/a> this past Thursday that he will now fight Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> for the middleweight title in the UFC 328 main event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Who wins in the main event of UFC 328 on May 9?<\/h3>\n

Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev finally get the chance to settle their bitter feud at Prudential Center, can the American beat the champ?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Talking<\/p>

Credits: Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Strickland\u2019s mouth once again earned him a title shot<\/h2>\n

Prior to Strickland\u2019s win over Hernandez, it seemed almost guaranteed that Chimaev\u2019s first title defense would come against Nassourdine Imavov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Russian Sniper\u2019 is on a five fight winning streak since losing to Strickland in 2023, scoring impressive wins over the likes of Israel Adesanya<\/a> and Caio Borralho<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And many fans would\u2019ve preferred him to get the title shot over Strickland, for many reasons.<\/p>\n

At this point, all Strickland needs to do is rebound with one win before being given another title shot, which is staggering.<\/p>\n

When he first lost against Dricus Du Plessis<\/a>, he rebounded with one of the most forgettable fights of all time against Paulo Costa<\/a>, but somehow got another title shot.<\/p>\n

He was then utterly dominated by \u2018Stillknocks\u2019 in a rematch and all he had to do was beat \u2018Fluffy\u2019 to outdo Imavov\u2019s impressive streak.<\/p>\n

Even I will admit that Chimaev vs Strickland is undoubtedly a bigger fight on paper than what Chimaev vs Imavov would be, but Strickland is not a fun fighter.<\/p>\n

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\"Sean<\/p>\n<\/div>

Photo by Amy Kaplan\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The build-up to the fight will be insane, and likely dangerous for the UFC, and they will struggle to keep it amicable and without any sort of controversy.<\/p>\n

But there lies my issue. Strickland\u2019s dangerous mouth is getting him title shots, not his action inside the cage. And that should never be the case.<\/p>\n

If there was no one else for \u2018Borz\u2019 to fight in the division then, yes, make the fight.<\/p>\n

This, though, continues to show that popularity beats meritocracy, and whether you are the most elite fighter in your division, it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Strickland will sell more tickets than Imavov, and that is the long and short of it. As he said, people will either buy tickets to see him win, or they will buy tickets to see him lose.<\/p>\n

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Jamie Theodosi
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Strickland\u2019s most dangerous weapon is his mouth, and that alone is getting him Dana White privilege. This past February, Sean Strickland returned to the win column with a win over Anthony Hernandez in the UFC Houston main event. That marked the controversial middleweight\u2019s fifth knockout win in the premier promotion and his first in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":896568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,148608],"tags":[5788,148607],"class_list":{"0":"post-896567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dangerous","8":"category-stricklands","9":"tag-dangerous","10":"tag-stricklands"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896567","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=896567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}