Sean Strickland’s Immediate Backstage Reaction To UFC 297 Title Loss: ‘Welcome To Fighting’

Sean Strickland’s middleweight title reign got here to an finish a mere 4 months after it started.

Following his beautiful upset of two-time champion Israel Adesanya in September, Strickland was primed to attain his first profitable protection in opposition to South African finisher Dricus Du Plessis. And within the eyes of many, he did precisely that. Nonetheless, two of the three judges overseeing the bout favored DDP, handing him the victory and the title by a razor-thin margin.

Strickland had little to say within the speedy aftermath, however the outspoken fan favourite just lately shared a video on YouTube that documented his response to the loss backstage.

“As soon as that eye opened up, man, I simply couldn’t see sh*t,” Strickland mentioned after returning to the locker room along with his workforce. “Welcome to combating. I really feel like Chris Curtis. I’m going to start out f*cking calling myself Chris Curtis.”

Strickland sustained a nasty reduce over his left eye, one which he later attributed to a headbutt within the later rounds of the 25-minute affair. On X, Strickland shared a clip of the incident which supplied a take a look at some compelling proof together with the following injury it resulted in.

With the unintentional conflict of heads obvious and everybody seemingly cut up on who ought to have left Canada with the title, together with UFC CEO Dana White who scored it in favor of Strickland, there’s a very sturdy case to be made for a right away rematch between the 2. Sadly, that seems to be on the again burner because the promotion is seeking to guide a conflict with both Israel Adesnaya or the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev.

All issues thought-about, do you consider Sean Strickland is entitled to a rematch?