UFC 328 nearly three weeks ago was a landmark day for Sean Strickland.
The 35-year-old striker handed Khamzat Chimaev the first pro loss of his mixed martial arts career, and he won the UFC middleweight championship for the second time in his career.
Strickland has a case for being the top middleweight on the planet. He holds notable wins over Chimaev, Paulo Costa, Israel Adesanya, and Uriah Hall, and he’s just the eighth fighter ever to win a championship in the same weight class at least twice joining Randy Couture (heavyweight, light heavyweight), Stipe Miocic (heavyweight), Deiveson Figueiredo (flyweight), Brandon Moreno (flyweight), Dominick Cruz (bantamweight), T.J. Dillashaw (bantamweight), and Rose Namajunas (women’s strawweight).
But impressive resume or not, fans are piling on Strickland for what he recently said about fighting prime Anderson Silva, who many consider to be the greatest middleweight of all time.
“I’d [expletive] him up,” Strickland told Nina Drama. “I think there’s a big level difference now. If you could take Anderson Silva and bring him into modern time…every generation gets better and better. So, that’s kind of one of those hard fights to say would I beat this guy up? Well, yeah. Naturally the sport is getting better.”
Silva was one of, if not the most decorated fighter in UFC history, which makes Strickland’s comments seem all the more absurd.
He holds UFC records for the longest title reign in company history (2,457 days), the most successful title defenses and most consecutive title defenses in middleweight division history (10), the most wins in middleweight title fights (11), the most finishes in UFC title fights (nine), most knockouts in title fights (seven), and the most knockdowns in title fights (10). Silva was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2023.
Fans were quick to rip Strickland on social media for his delusions of grandeur.
“Silva would absolutely murk Strickland. You think you can out jab a decision against the best striker of all time? To anyone believing his [expletive] take, just go watch Anderson Silva destroy Belfort and tell me this generation is better 😅,” one fan stated.
“Ok that’s enough Sean Strickland full on rage bait the same way Alex Pereira gave Sean the one bang 🤜💥 the exact same way Anderson Silva would down Sean Strickland in one front kick to the face,” another exclaimed.
“You can’t show me a Sean Strickland Highlight reel that will make me believe he’s better than prime Silva.. 😂,” a third fan quipped.
“This dude is fun to watch but in this case he’s delusional. Lol. Silva in his prime was as good as anybody ever in their prime,” one user replied.
“Anderson Silva would demolish Sean Strickland. Sean Strickland’s game is basically to not get beat. He has very good defense, but he’s not really trying to finish. Anderson Silva was a fighter that you couldn’t really prepare for. His Muy Thai was ELITE and he could grapple,” another user stated.
“Sean Strickland has said some really dumb stuff pretty much every time he opens his mouth but this might be the dumbest. Prime Silva lets Strickland attempt to hit for a round and then 100% sends Strickland to the shadow realm in round 2,” noted one fan.
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