Sean Strickland recently joked about his situation, claiming the UFC barred him from attending UFC 323 to support his teammates.
Strickland is serving a suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for storming the cage at a Tuff-N-Uff event in June. He stepped in after Miles Hunsinger’s loss and threw punches at Luis Hernandez, who had taunted the corner after securing a submission win.
The former UFC middleweight champion took to Threads to reveal that he has been suspended from attending the final pay-per-view event of 2025:
“Well… I wanted to go watch the homies fight tonight, but the UFC bosses personally called me to tell me to [expletive] myself. I’m suspended and can’t come… lol.”
Check out Sean Strickland‘s post below:
The commission issued a six-month ban and a $5000 fine for his actions. He could have reduced the suspension to four and a half months by completing an anger management course, but he never did. The suspension ends on Dec. 29.
Strickland’s layoff has stretched nearly a year when combined with the fallout from his last fight, a rematch with Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312 in February. Du Plessis controlled the action and won a unanimous decision.
It followed a unanimous decision win against Paulo Costa at UFC 302 that secured the rematch against du Plessis. Strickland has also talked about fighting reigning middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.
He argues he is the only middleweight who can handle the champion’s wrestling and says the division has stalled while Chimaev recovers and plans his schedule for 2026. ‘Tarzan’ also refused a matchup with Anthony Hernandez at UFC 325 in Australia, saying that he did not want to deal with the tax burden of fighting overseas.
He wants a return fight in Las Vegas the moment his suspension expires. Whether that leads him closer to Chimaev remains uncertain.
Edited by Abhishek Nambiar
