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Former UFC middleweight champ Sean Strickland has once again divided the MMA world with a controversial social media post — and rising middleweight contender Joe Pyfer quickly followed his lead.
Strickland and Pyfer are two of the top Americans competing in the UFC middleweight division. Both have big fights coming up. Strickland is set to take on surging contender Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Houston on Feb. 21. Pyfer, meanwhile, will take on middleweight legend Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC Seattle on Mar. 28.
Like Strickland and Pyfer, Hernandez is an American citizen. However, he has Mexican heritage. That was enough for Strickland to share an AI-generated image of himself dressed as an ICE agent, apprehending his upcoming opponent.
Sean Strickland via Instagram… 😭
(via @SStricklandMMA) pic.twitter.com/EsOBzn7C4Y
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) January 15, 2026
On Instagram, his fans seemed to find his post humorous, but over on X, the reaction was less warm.
“What an embarrassing pile of s**t,” one fan wrote.
Joe Pyfer follows Sean Strickland with similar post about UFC rival
Unlike Strickland, Pyfer, and Hernandez, Adesanya is not an American citizen and has never lived in the country. Instead, he was born in Nigeria and now lives in New Zealand. Nonetheless, Pyfer took an opportunity to follow Strickland’s lead, sharing a very similar image of him arresting upcoming UFC Seattle opponent.
I hope Izzy KO’s him pic.twitter.com/ndLwJhARYF
— Dovy🔌 (@DovySimuMMA) January 16, 2026
As with the post Strickland shared, Pyfer’s met met with mixed reactions. Some fans found it offensive, but others found it funny.
“It’s a joke bro, he literally said in an interview that he thought [Adesanya] was the [middleweight] GOAT,” one Strickland fan wrote. “Stop being soft.”
No matter where you stand, there is clearly a lot of pride on the line in these two huge upcoming middleweight matchups. The stakes are also very high, as the winners of each fight will be among the top contenders in the division.
