Jorge Masvidal is in Sean Strickland’s corner. Yahoo Sports reported Friday that Masvidal has come out in support of Strickland, the UFC champion who spent the back half of this week publicly feuding with his own promotion over pay.
The timing makes sense. Strickland has been loud, and he’s been specific.
On Thursday he released a video, flagged by Championship Rounds, in which he said he’s done with the UFC and wants to move into boxing. He framed it as a money problem with a legacy problem stacked on top. “I’m gonna say the quiet part out loud that nobody says... the [UFC] just doesn’t care anymore,” Strickland said. “They don’t pay you enough money to walk away.” His argument, roughly, is that the promotion lets fighters build a name and then underpays them so badly they have to keep coming back long after they should have quit. He said he and his team are trying to work out a boxing path, and that if the UFC refuses, “well I’m gonna stick and move.”
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How we got here
This started Wednesday. Strickland said he was weighing a plan that would make any matchmaker reach for the antacids: vacate the belt, move up to 205, burn through the rest of his contract at light heavyweight and then fight Jake Paul.
“Unless things change with the UFC thing I’m kinda over it. Contemplating just going to 205, knocking out my contract and scrapping with Jake Paul,” he said.
That same night he ran into Nassourdine Imavov in Las Vegas, and the exchange was caught on video. Imavov went straight at the contract issue. “What is your problem? You not sign the contract?” Imavov asked, before offering to cover the money himself. Strickland’s contribution to the diplomacy was “Say what?”
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Paul jumped in early Thursday with a list of fights he wants before he rests. Strickland’s name sat on it next to Canelo Alvarez, Francis Ngannou, Conor McGregor, Tom Aspinall (boxing) and Deontay Wilder, among others. Paul then told Strickland on X that he’d seen his texts, asked whether he was out of contract, and told him to have his promoter get in touch with MVP.
Strickland replied on X that he hadn’t decided yet whether he wants to nuke his contract, but that putting hands on Paul sounded a lot better than the UFC right now.
So the champion is texting Jake Paul, getting confronted by a contender on the Strip, and posting resignation videos. That’s a lot for one week.
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The take
I’ll give Strickland this much. He’s answering the question everyone in the sport dances around, with his name attached, while still holding UFC gold. That’s rare and it’s expensive, and Masvidal knows what it costs to fight the company in public. Support from Masvidal won’t move the UFC an inch, though. Strickland’s leverage is the belt and a plausible Paul payday, and the UFC holds the paper. If the promotion won’t sign off on a boxing match, the 205 plan stops being a joke he tells on camera and becomes the actual route out, one fight at a time.
