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Sean Strickland (born February 27, 1991) is an American mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the current UFC Middleweight Champion. A professional competitor since 2008, he is the former King of the Cage Middleweight Champion. As of November 14, 2023, he is #8 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.
Sean Strickland grew up in Corona, California, in a household with a physically and mentally abusive father.
During Strickland’s early childhood, he attacked his father with a guitar in an attempt to defend his mother. Strickland fled from his house and contacted his local law enforcement leading to his father being briefly arrested. However, the next day his father was released from jail as his mother paid for his bond.
Later in Strickland’s adolescence, he developed a close relationship with his grandfather who had ideologically neo-Nazi views. He adopted his grandfather’s views, which were further reinforced through his viewing of the film American History X. Strickland stated regarding the characters in the film, “I loved the life they lived, just dirty, white trash, to have respect, you know? When I was a kid, that was somebody I would hero-worship, that ideology.”
Strickland recalled that he was expelled from school in the ninth grade for perpetrating a hate crime, after which his mother decided to take him to an MMA gym. He met people of different races whilst training who helped him and this motivated him to abandon the ideology. Strickland stated, “Then I started training and the moment I started training I was like, fuck man, I don’t hate anybody. Everyone’s cool. Then a lot of people who helped me out in my life, they weren’t white.”
At the age of 18, Strickland had another violent altercation with his father again resulting in police involvement however no charges were pressed. Following this event, Strickland and his mother moved out of his father’s house.
Strickland made his professional debut in 2008 for the King of the Cage promotion and compiled an undefeated record of 9-0 before facing Josh Bryant in a fight for the King of the Cage Middleweight Championship at KOTC: Unification on December 9, 2012. Strickland won via split decision, and then successfully defended his title three times before being signed by the UFC.