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Sean Strickland is widely considered among the most boring fighters in UFC history. Heading into 2026, the UFC has cut several athletes for being boring. This begs the question of why the organisation is using him, unless it’s a slap in the face to fans.
Whether Strickland is narrowly winning or just losing, he ensures that fans watching the event are not entertained. It takes an incredible amount of willpower to take a fist fight in a cage and somehow make it lame. But here we are, just days away from another main event featuring Strickland. His biggest fans remain people who struggle to sleep and are looking for any cure.
Why is Sean Strickland Still Competing if the UFC is Cutting Boring Fighters?
If his opponent is looking to brawl, wrestle, or be aggressive in any way, Strickland will find the fortitude ensure they fight at the pace of his choosing. Strickland once took a seventeen-hour flight and was deathly bored the entire time. He then used that idea as a template for the pace of fighting he enjoys. Front foot or back foot, it doesn’t matter. He will find a way not to engage.
Throughout his UFC career, the 34-year-old athlete has landed a whopping 2,197 significant strikes over four hours of cage time, with two knockout wins in his 16 UFC victories. He’s put more fans to sleep than opponents in the octagon.
His most recent UFC win was a five-round split decision over Paulo Costa, which left fans begging for fights to be ended early due to timidity. At the time, Costa had no wins over any active UFC fighter but was ranked as one of the most entertaining fighters in MMA history. Strickland found a way to make his opponent passive and still barely won on the scorecards.
Because he is so boring in the cage, Strickland has invented a persona to keep the attention on him, thus distracting viewers from his actual ability. While he struggles against ranked competition, Strickland has no issue punching down. Whether he’s attacking untrained streamers or verbally insulting women and the LGBTQ community, he ensures his real targets are vulnerable groups.
As Friedrich Nietzsche suggests, going out of your way to hurt those with less power than you usually signals a lack of power, not strength. As Seneca put it, all cruelty springs from weakness; the urge to bully vulnerable people is less a show of strength than an admission you don’t have any.
“I don’t talk trash, I knock people out. I don’t need to talk trash to sell a fight, the people want to see knockouts and that’s what I do.” – Terance Crawford.
MMA has seen its fair share of manly men who will look to fight to the death. Don Frye brawled against anyone at any weight while waving the American flag. Wanderlei Silva fought in bare-knuckle no-rules competition, then brought his dangerous action-style to sell out stadiums in Tokyo. Chuck Liddell, Mark Hunt, Dan Henderson, Shogun Rua, Tank Abbott, these men fought with grit against anyone. Strickland simply doesn’t fit in with this class, despite the idea of manliness he continuously speaks about.
Royce Gracie was an undersized athlete who faced anyone in no-rules competition. The original idea behind the UFC was so exciting that it created an entire sport that spans the globe. If Strickland competed during this era, it would have ended after just one event.
Rinat Fakhretdinov, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Martin Buday, and Jailton Almeida were all cut by the UFC for their dull style. Commentator Laura Sanko recently explained that the UFC is looking for fighters who are violent and entertaining. “The trend will persist in favor of violence,” Sanko explained. “There is a lot of discussion now about rewarding aggressive fighters, celebrating finishes, and fighters aiming for those decisive outcomes. There’s a sense that with this new broadcasting partnership, we need to demonstrate to viewers what true fighting entails … The athletes who rise to stardom will be those who deliver those spectacular finishes.”
Strickland has become the clearest contradiction in the UFC’s new “violence first” era: a safe, low-output point fighter thriving in a promotion that is supposedly cutting his exact archetype. Every sleep-inducing main event he delivers makes the “we’re done with boring fighters” message look hollow. If the promotion is serious about rewarding action and punishing timidity, then keeping Strickland in marquee spots is inconsistent and an insult to the fans.
