Sean Strickland may have just become a two-time UFC middleweight champion, but that did not stop him from requesting complimentary tickets to one of the biggest MMA events of the year. The problem? The recently crowned champion spent the last few months openly demeaning the very fight he now wishes to attend.
During a recent press conference ahead of the highly anticipated Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano card, Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian revealed that ‘Tarzan’ had reached out about attending the Netflix-MVP event. However, MVP’s CEO made it clear that he was in no rush to approve the request in light of the UFC star’s earlier comments.
“We have a great celebrity base, and we have a ton of MMA fighters, UFC fighters that wanna come,” he said in a recent press conference. “You know, I got a request today from Sean Strickland, and I gotta talk to Ronda, right?
“Because he was very derogatory about Ronda and Gina, disrespectful, saying inappropriate things. While we’d love to have him as a UFC champion, and I think he puts on a tremendous act, you can’t disrespect the headliners and then call and ask for free tickets.”
That reaction follows Sean Strickland’s viral outburst from two months ago, in which he expressed his brutally honest opinion on Ronda Rousey’s long-awaited comeback against Gina Carano.
At the time, the outspoken UFC star anticipated a dominant performance from ‘Rowdy’ while simultaneously dismissing the level of women’s MMA during Carano’s era.
“Ronda Rousey’s gonna steamroll her,” he said. “Ronda Rousey is an Olympian that was a multi-time world champion. Gina Carano was pretty at a time when women’s MMA sucked. I mean, it’s still not very good, but when Gina Carano was fighting, it was significantly worse.”
That alone sparked backlash online, but ‘Tarzan’ doubled down even harder afterward.
“Ronda Rousey’s gonna f—— steamroll her,” he added. “And we’re just gonna watch two middle-aged women going through menopause fight each other. I don’t know. I have no interest in that. Who gives a f—?”
Sean Strickland’s ticket request comes only days after what is considered by many to be the biggest win of his own career. Last Saturday, at UFC 328, the controversial UFC star defeated Khamzat Chimaev via split decision in Newark, reclaiming the UFC middleweight title and handing ‘Borz’ his first professional MMA defeat.
Now, despite openly mocking the Netflix card for months, the UFC champion apparently still wants a seat inside the arena for the show. Whether Ronda Rousey agrees to let him in for free is another story entirely. After all, it seems like ‘Rowdy’ is still not done butting heads with the UFC and their people.
Ronda Rousey calls out ‘chauvinist’ UFC executive
That tension with the Ultimate Fighting Championship still clearly bothers the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion ahead of her comeback. While she praised Dana White for encouraging her return and even helping her be medically fit for a return, she claims UFC CBO Hunter Campbell wanted no part of it.
Before signing with MVP for the Gina Carano fight, ‘Rowdy’ reached out to the UFC. According to her, Campbell ridiculed the matchup and questioned whether two aging stars could still draw interest.
“He was just a f—— a–hole about it,” Rousey told Ariel Helwani. “He was just being such a chauvinist pig and he was being so dismissive, just trying to get me and Gina to value ourselves less from the get-go and acting like this isn’t the greatest thing that’s fallen into his lap since he’s been there.
“He was like, ‘No, you guys are just so much older, and I just don’t know how it’s gonna do.’ I was like, ‘Who the f— is this guy?’ First of all, I didn’t even know who he was.”
That frustration has become part of the narrative around her comeback. Ronda Rousey clearly believes this event is about more than nostalgia, especially since Netflix is backing it as its first live MMA event. And based on the attention around the fight, she is ready to prove that the UFC, as well as Sean Strickland, simply underestimated both her and Gina Carano.
