Former UFC champ Sean Strickland storms cage, punches fighter
A former UFC champion is facing punishment after storming a cage in flip flops and punching a fighter in truly bizarre scenes.
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Former UFC champion Sean Strickland is renowned as a different unit, and he showed that again on the weekend when he wasn’t even fighting.
Strickland’s UFC career is at somewhat of a crossroads after the American, who won the welterweight off Israel Adesanya, lost consecutive title fights to Dricus du Plessis.
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But Strickland is staying close to the action, storming into a cage after a fight at Tuff-N-Uff 145.
In bizarre scenes you can watch in the video above, Strickland, wearing flip flops, could be scene flying into the cage after Luis Hernandez submitted Miles Hunsinger to win the fight.
Hernandez celebrated the victory with a lewd gesture that clearly set Strickland off.
Strickland and MMA fighter Chris Curtis ran to Hernandez and Strickland punched the victorious fighter, despite the efforts of the referee to shield Hernandez, who is a police officer.
“Sean Strickland couldn’t drop me,” Hernandez said in the cage after the fight.
“Guess what UFC, I want my turn.”
Both Strickland and Curtis are set to face potential punishment from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for their rogue antics.
Strickland explained on Instagram: “So after the fight, you guys see me corner guys all the time, I’m the first one to shake their hand and say ‘I wish you well, on to the next one’.
“But after the fight this guy comes up to me, calls me by name, ‘Strickland’, calls me a b****, says he’s going to f*** me up. Does the hand gesture … as a man, I’m not capable not to answer that.
“If I walk down the street, if I leave my house and somebody says that, my soul will not allow that to not go unanswered. I cannot do it, I cannot f*** do it.”
Strickland is a loose cannon, evident when he flipped the bird to du Plessis after losing their rematch at UFC 312 in February.
It was a big weekend for UFC with Ilia Topuria joining an exclusive club of two-division champions by defeating Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 to win the lightweight belt.
Topuria knocked Oliveira out cold with a savage combination of punches to reinforce his status as the UFC’s most dangerous knockout artist.
The victory opens the door for Topuria to take on Islam Makhachev at lightweight or welterweight in a blockbuster bout between two of the UFC’s scariest fighters.
Makhachev has signalled his intention to fight Australia’s newly crowned welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena later this year.
It continues a tough run of fights for Australians after Alex Volkanovski was knocked out by Topuria and Volkanovski before reclaiming his featherweight title at UFC 314.
Volkanovski, 36, is in the twilight of his career but showed he is still a class fighter, defeating Diego Lopes to reclaim his featherweight title.
But Volk’s dreams of becoming lightweight champion appear over, with the Aussie set to finish his UFC career with a couple of featherweight title defences.
Topuria shook his head when asked if he would fight Volkanovski again in a rematch.
“Never (again), all with Volk is done,” he told news.com.au.
“First of all, because I’m not planning to go back to the featherweight division again.
“And the second thing is that I don’t think that they (the UFC) are gonna allow him to move up to the lightweight division.
“OK if he does it, I don’t think that he deserves the title shot directly.”
Topuria also said Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett is one fight away from a title shot at lightweight.
The Englishman outclassed Michael Chandler in April and welterweight champion Dricus du Plessis believes Pimblett’s next fight will be against Justin Gaethje at UFC 319 in August.
Du Plessis will defend his belt against Khamzat Chimaev.
“It’s gonna be a big card,” the South African told Ahmed Amwell on YouTube.
“The co-main event is Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje.”
Originally published as Former UFC champ Sean Strickland storms cage, punches fighter
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