Arman Tsarukyan asked Sean Strickland one simple question this week. I’ve spent two days trying to come up with a good answer on Sean’s behalf, and I’ve got nothing.
“He signed the contract? If he didn’t sign the contract, yeah, you can and like renegotiate,” Tsarukyan said during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.
That’s the whole case. Everything after it is decoration.
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Quick refresher for anyone who spent the summer off the grid. Strickland signed a new deal with the UFC before UFC 328 in May. Then he went out and beat Khamzat Chimaev to become a two-time middleweight champion. He was expected to put the belt on the line against Nassourdine Imavov this December. When that rumored fight didn’t show up on the UFC 335 announcement, Strickland came out swinging and said the promotion wasn’t willing to match his pay demands. Then Dana White did what Dana White does and pulled the receipt, revealing that Strickland had only agreed to the new contract in May. According to Bloody Elbow, a good chunk of the sympathy Strickland had built up drained out right there.
Arman Did the Math Out Loud
Tsarukyan’s argument is simple enough to fit on a fight poster. Strickland knew what he’d make against Chimaev. He knew what the following fight would pay. He signed anyway.
“How you can sign your contract, fight one more fight, next fight you know before the fight, second one is gonna be this purse and then you signing the contract? You gotta be a little smart,” Tsarukyan said.
The syntax is scrambled. The logic is airtight. You can’t read the menu, order the steak, eat the steak, and then send the bill back because you suddenly think you deserved lobster.
The line that should actually sting came next. “Maybe he didn’t believe in himself that he’s gonna beat Khamzat, that’s why he signed,” Tsarukyan said.
Oof. I love a fighter who calls his shot and backs it up, and Strickland has built an entire persona on saying the quiet part at full volume. So it’s a little awkward that his biggest business move of the year looks like a hedge. Signing before Chimaev reads like a guy buying insurance in case the night went sideways. It didn’t go sideways. He won. And now he wants the payout of a guy who bet the house on himself, when what he actually did was cash out his parlay before the last leg hit and then start yelling at the sportsbook.
Where Sean Has Half a Point
I’ll give Strickland this much. MiddleEasy noted that the champ has argued the UFC limited his bargaining power, and I’m not going to pretend leverage is split evenly between one fighter and the biggest promotion in the sport. The UFC holds most of the cards in most of these conversations. That’s been true forever.
But limited leverage explains why a fighter signs a deal he doesn’t love. It does nothing to explain signing that deal in May and then refusing to fight under it a few months later, with the ink barely dry. If the terms were bad in May, May was the month to scream about it. Screaming in October, after the belt is already around your waist, makes it look like the complaint showed up the same day the leverage did.
Tsarukyan’s prescription is boring, and it’s correct. “He’s gotta take the fights, do a couple more fights, and then re-sign his contract,” he told Helwani.
That’s the move. Defend the belt against Imavov. Stack a win on top of the Chimaev win. Walk into the next negotiation as a champion with a defense on his record instead of a champion with a grievance and a delayed calendar. A titleholder sitting on the sidelines arguing about money is the one thing more frustrating than a titleholder who fights safe, because at least the safe guy shows up.
Arman Is Living His Own Advice
Here’s why Tsarukyan gets to talk. He hasn’t been waiting around for the UFC to hand him a raise. Between his two most recent UFC fights, he stayed busy competing in wrestling and grappling matches, padding his income outside the Octagon. He’s doing it again right now. Tsarukyan is set to wrestle Dillon Danis at RAF 14 on Friday night, which is a sentence I never expected to type and am delighted to.
That’s what building leverage looks like. You don’t beg for a bigger slice. You find more pies.
Strickland can keep fighting the UFC in the press, and the UFC will keep holding a signed contract with his name on it. Or he can fight Imavov, win, and make White’s matchmakers sweat when the deal comes up for real. Tsarukyan, meanwhile, gets paid on Friday night either way.
