UFC Needs to Pay Up For Sean Strickland
On Wednesday, October 7, UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland went public with his pay dispute with the world’s leading MMA promotion.
Strickland, who hasn’t fought since an upset win over Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328 to capture the UFC middleweight title for the second time, is one of the biggest names in the sport today, a fan favorite who came from nothing to become a two-time UFC champion and a likely UFC Hall of Famer when it’s all said and done.
Yet, despite everything going for him, Strickland has been getting lowballed by the UFC, which is looking to book him in a rematch against rival Nassourdine Imavov for his next fight, which has kept him from getting booked since May.
With all of the UFC’s numbered cards booked up until the end of 2026, Strickland won’t be returning until 2027 at the earliest, and that’s a problem, because he’s a star fighter in his prime who wants to fight — but he just wants to get paid fairly, something the UFC apparently doesn’t seem to want to do.
Sean Strickland Wants the Bag
Taking to his social media, Strickland made it clear that he was upset the UFC paid Conor McGregor a rumored $30 million and Zuffa Boxing boxers like Conor Benn $15 million while he gets left with the scraps despite being a much better fighter than those guys.
That’s why he has come to the resolution that he’s open to vacating his UFC middleweight title, fighting the final fight of his current deal up a weight class at 205 lbs where he doesn’t have to cut weight, and then doing a big-money boxing match against influencer Jake Paul.
“I gotta be honest unless things change with the UFC Im kinda over it. McGregor makes 30 million to fight for 30 second and they dont want to pay us a fraction of it. Contemplating just going to 205 knocking out my contract and scrapping with @jakepaul That sounds fun,” Strickland wrote on his X.
“Its just hard McGregor 30 million Some lame boxer 15 million The thought of just giving up my belt going to 205 and speed running my contract to fight Jake and make what these guys are making sounds pretty damn appealing.”
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Whatever you think about Strickland as a person — he says some crazy things, after all — you have to admit that he is one heck of a fighter, one of the biggest names in MMA right now, and the UFC needs to stop lowballing him and pay him what he deserves, because the fans want to see him fight.
The UFC has a star problem right now, but Strickland is one of the few true big names that fans love and will pay to watch fight.
Yet, for whatever reason, the UFC is playing hardball with him and, in the end, it’s the fans who are the ones who are losing out on watching one of their favorite fighters compete.
UFC Needs to Come to Its Senses
One of the biggest problems right now with the UFC is that president Dana White seems mentally checked out of MMA at the moment because his focus seems to be on Zuffa Boxing and Power Slap more than the UFC.
While UFC CBO Hunter Campbell is the one who handles a lot of the matchmaking right now, it just doesn’t feel the same as it used to.
Say what you want about White, but he often got the fights booked that the fans want to see, and it feels like, under Campbell running much of the show these days, we see a lot more fighters complaining about the matchmaking and pay, at least on social media.
Campbell is obviously a smart guy, and if anything ever happened to White, he’d be the one who takes over as the UFC president.
But White is the UFC president for a reason, and it would be nice if he started to care more about his promotion again, because the fans need him to.
Strickland is a fantastic fighter and, after beating Chimaev in an epic upset, the fans want to see him fight again.
So pay up, UFC, and get this man back into the Octagon ASAP.
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This story was originally published by Lindys Sports on Oct 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Other Sports section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.