Sean Strickland Says He Would Vacate the Title to Fight Jake Paul
Sean Strickland is talking about giving up the UFC middleweight belt. The champion wrote Wednesday that unless his pay changes, he is considering a move to 205, a shorter contract, and a boxing match with Jake Paul.
“I gotta be honest unless things change with the UFC Im kinda over it,” Strickland posted. “McGregor makes 30 million to fight for 30 second and they dont want to pay us a fraction of it.”
He named the alternative in the next line. “Contemplating just going to 205 knocking out my contract and scrapping with @jakepaul. That sounds fun.”
The belt was not a sticking point in the replies that followed. “Yeah man I wouldnt even care to give up my belt and go to 205.
Easier cut,” Strickland wrote. He came back to the money twice more, putting Conor McGregor’s figure at $30 million and “some lame boxer” at $15 million.
“I can sit here and grind at middle weight and kill myself to make 185 or just move up enjoy it knock out my contract and get a bag fight paul… sorry beating the breaks off paul,” he wrote. Those are his numbers and his plan. The UFC has not said it will release him, and Paul has not said he wants the fight.
The posts landed on the same day Nassourdine Imavov confronted him outside the UFC Performance Institute over an unsigned title-fight contract. Imavov asked why the deal was not signed and said he had money. Security held the contender back. Strickland kept walking. No bout was booked out of the exchange.
Pay was already the public holdup. On September 27 Strickland wrote that the Imavov fight was close once the purse was settled. “We’re discussing pay now. Once that detail is squared, its locked in,” he posted. “The issue is no one cares about the fake Frenchman. We’re almost there.”
Imavov tried to move that number himself. He offered $500,000 of his own money if Strickland beat him in January, and he asked the UFC to strip the champion if the holdout continued.
Khamzat Chimaev went higher on October 5, writing that he would pay Strickland $1 million and telling him to send a location. Neither offer has produced a signed fight.
December is already gone. UFC 335 on December 12 in Las Vegas was announced with Charles Oliveira against Diego Lopes for the BMF belt, not a middleweight title defense.
The January date Imavov has been pointing to still needs Strickland’s signature. Vacating would take the champion out of that line without a negotiation.
Strickland is 31-7, 18-7 in the UFC, and he has held this belt since May. He beat Chimaev by split decision at UFC 328 to take the title for a second time. The first run ended against Dricus du Plessis.
A move to 205 would skip the cut he called easier to abandon than to make, and it would turn the remaining contractual fights into a path out rather than a defense.
Paul is the name attached to the exit. Strickland did not post a date, a weight, or a promoter. He posted a comparison. McGregor and a boxer, in his telling, were paid for short nights. A middleweight title defense, in the same posts, is a grind that still has not been priced.
The title has not moved. Strickland is still the champion, Imavov is still unsigned, and the UFC has not announced a vacancy or a replacement. What changed on Wednesday is the champion’s public option. He can settle the purse and fight Imavov, or he can hand the belt back, finish the contract at 205, and try to get paid to box Paul. Until one of those happens, the threat is still a post.
