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UFC women’s strawweight Tatiana Suarez responded to Sean Strickland’s negative comments about women’s MMA.
On January 20, Strickland will defend his middleweight title for the first time in the UFC 297 main event against Dricus du Plessis. Before stepping into the Octagon, the 185-pound king sat down for his media day interview on Wednesday to discuss various topics.
Anytime Strickland talks to the media, he tends to say something controversial, which was no different this time around. When asked about the UFC 297 co-main event between Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva, Sean Strickland had this to say:
“Here’s the thing guys. WNBA, let’s just be honest, I’m not gonna be offensive when I say this, WNBA, NBA, who watches what? Who makes more money? Women’s MMA? Sure, have women’s MMA, have it a f*cking thing. I don’t like to watch it. I don’t think most people like to watch it. If the female’s MMA was to separate from male MMA, no one is going to watch this sh*t. No one wants to watch this sh*t. It is what it is. I don’t know what to f*cking tell you. It is what it is.”
Sean Strickland continued:
“There is a vast difference between man and women. Even take this weak little f*cking Canadian sitting next to you, he can probably beat up Raquel Pennington. The fact of the matter is, any one of you f*cks could probably beat our [UFC 297] co-main event in a fight. I’m not saying you can’t go watch and enjoy it, but I don’t want to see two f*cking little cats fight. I want to see lions fight.”
Strickland’s quotes were re-shared by MMA Junkie on Instagram, leading to mixed reactions in the comment section. One of his teammates, UFC women’s strawweight Tatiana Suarez, responded with the following message:
“Sean’s lying he watches the girls spar at our gym all the time. Also, I disagree both those women probably could beat the Canadian guy he is referring to 😂”
Sean Strickland opens up about the difficulty of making weight
It’s no secret that Sean Strickland loves to fight. With that said, he must also endure the painful procedure of cutting weight that nearly every fighter experiences. During the UFC 297 Embedded series, Strickland had this to say about the weight cut for his upcoming fight against Dricus du Plessis:
"The only thing that I really focus on is making weight. Fighting is the easy part, it's going there and fighting last 25 minutes. I hate this sh*t. I can spar endless times, endless, you wanna have me spar 10, 15 rounds, no problem. You told me to f**k around, I f**king hate it. Next three days kinda suck, tomorrow after I wake up I'll do a nice jog, media day all day. Then I go out to my buddy's gym who I talk to. Then, wednesday, repeat. Thursday, cut weight. We get paid to make weight, not to fight. F**king sucks."
Sean Strickland’s confidence is at an all-time high after defeating Israel Adesanya. Meanwhile, Dricus du Plessis is also confident he emerge victorious at UFC 297 after extending his undefeated promotion record to 6-0 with a TKO win against Robert Whittaker.
Only time will tell which world-class middleweight emerges victorious on Saturday.
Watch Strickland talk about cutting weight starting at 4:21 below:
