Sean Strickland has a bit of a love-hate relationship with former training partner and UFC on ESPN 28 main event opponent Uriah Hall.
Strickland (17-9 MMA, 10-7 UFC) said Hall (23-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) is a “c*nt” in the most gleeful way possible, and they used to get good rounds in together at Reign Training Center in California years ago. Now their paths have crossed as they try to trend upward in the UFC middleweight division.
Although Strickland has made it very clear that things like title belts aren’t exactly that important to him, he knows what’s at stake going into the ESPN-televised headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“The cool thing about Uriah is he’s like a gatekeeper,” Strickland told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 28 media day. “I don’t want to undersell Uriah and say he’s a gatekeeper, but he’s a damn good gatekeeper. He’s a guy you beat and it propels you into one or two (wins) away from a title shot. It’s a very interesting thing to think it’s within your grasp.”
Strickland is currently riding a four-fight winning streak in the octagon at 185 pounds. He’s unbeaten in his career when fighting at middleweight, having won all 16 of his contests in the weight class.
Having been in the UFC since 2014, Strickland hasn’t even got as far as to co-headline a card. Now he’s in the top spot, but it doesn’t seem to mean much – at least not yet.
“It is what it is,” Strickland said. “It’s a thing people try to make special, but it’s just another day, just another fight. It’s going to be special if I win. If I got knocked out I’m going to look back like, ‘F*ck, this sucked.’”
Strickland is relatively confident in his ability to not get knocked out, though. He knows quite a bit already about what Hall brings to the table, and thinks trained with enough different looks that he’s not going to be taken aback by anything on fight night.
“I train a lot with Raymond Daniels for many years,” Strickland said. “But I think with Uriah, it’s hard to replicate that. He’s a specialist where it’s very difficult to find guys who can do that well. But at the end of the day, just keep your f*cking hands up.”
Sean Strickland labels Uriah Hall as a ‘damn good gatekeeper’ going into UFC on ESPN 28
