Despite his recent loss to Dricus du Plessis earlier this year, Sean Strickland still has potential options for his next fight. He is particularly interested in a bout with Belal Muhammad, hoping the now-former welterweight champion will finally make good on his previous challenges.
Belal Muhammad has been critical of Strickland for the past year, even calling the former middleweight titleholder a “coward” following Strickland’s loss to du Plessis at UFC 312. When asked about his future plans, Strickland brought up Muhammad’s past comments, especially now that Muhammad lost his belt to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315.
Speaking in an interview, Strickland stated, “Belal would be a fun fight, that’d be a fun one.” Directly addressing Muhammad, he added:
“Belal, you should f*cking sack up, dog. This is it. You can finally sack the f*ck up, dude. All that shit you talked, man, we can finally make it happen. Lost your belt, you kind of got f*cked up, I got f*cked up. We should make that fight happen, Belal. That’d be a good one, right?”
Strickland clarified that any potential fight would need to be at middleweight, as he weighs around 230 pounds and has no intention of returning to welterweight. He reminded Muhammad of his claims about being willing to move up.
“Well, you’re going to middleweight. I’m [230 pounds], I ain’t going down to welterweight. I’m not doing that cut anymore. That’d be a good one. … He said he would [come up to fight me]. All that shit he talks on the Instagram, he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m going to come fight you, I’m going to come do this, I’m going to come do that. Now you can, you f*cking p*ssy. Do it for Palestine.”
Strickland`s record stands at one win and two losses in his last three outings, with both defeats coming against du Plessis. This follows his memorable victory over Israel Adesanya to claim the UFC championship at UFC 293 in September 2023. The 34-year-old is ready to step back into the octagon and mentioned he was interested in fighting Reinier de Ridder after de Ridder`s recent win over Bo Nickal.
However, de Ridder was subsequently booked to face Robert Whittaker. Strickland also mentioned being offered a fight against another top-ranked middleweight contender but ultimately turned it down, claiming the opponent did the same.
Strickland explained his situation with the matchmaking:
“I wanted to fight that RDR kid, but Mick [Maynard] wanted me to fight Caio [Borralho],” Strickland said. “Such a great guy. I said no. Well, we kind of both said no. It’s one of those weird things where it’s like I know him. I know his wife, I know his family. Like, at a press conference, ‘Hey Caio, how’s your baby doing? What, he’s turning two?’ It’s just awkward because I know [him and] his family. It’s not fun. …”
He concluded by reiterating his interest in de Ridder:
“But that RDR… that would be a great one. You’re a jiu-jitsu [guy], you beat up Bo Nickal, who is a f*cking p*ssy. That’d be a great fight.”
