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Sean Strickland was pleasantly taken aback by how the live crowd received his UFC 297 performance.
Strickland is known for his polarizing takes, often taking a strong right-wing leaning on a socio-political level. He came into fight week for the UFC's first pay-per-view of 2024, thinking Canada was quite far left on the political spectrum, and made that known during several press events leading into the fight.
After controversial takes that were verbally delivered regarding women and the LGBTQI community, Strickland expected to be jeered by the crowd. When he received a raucous reaction for his title-losing effort on points in the night's main event to Dricus du Plessis, you could tell the now-former 185-pound UFC champion was delightfully caught off guard by it.
Sharing a clip of his post-fight interview in the octagon with captioned text via his personal X platform, @SStricklandMMA, Strickland said:
"Expected to be met with a bunch of freedom hating liberal women with dicks but instead I met a bunch of freedom loving savages!! Thank you!!!"
Check out the Sean Strickland quote regarding the Toronto reception below:
Sean Strickland and his UFC journey so far
Sean Strickland aimed to make the first defense of his 185-pound championship on Jan. 20, but alas, it was not to be. The UFC 297 fight was tightly contested, as evidenced by the split decision verdict, with some thinking Strickland had done enough to retain. However, the gold is now in the possession of DDP.
The 32-year-old was on the heels of his unanimous decision win over two-time UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. This UFC 293 main event saw Strickland cement himself as the champion last September.
The native of the United States earned his shot at the 185-pound crown following consecutive wins over Nassourdine Imavov and Abus Magomedov. That came on the heels of a pair of losses to Alex Pereira and Jared Cannonier for Strickland.
Strickland is still at the top of the weight category, and his next contest will presumably be one of consequence in that rarefied air of top contenders there.
