UFC champion Sean Strickland breaks down in tear recounting his violent father, dealing with childhood trauma

Undisputed UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland will defend his championship against Dricus Du Plessis in the first PPV of 2024 UFC 297. However, before their bout, they were caught up in a fight in the UFC 296 crowd.

Apart from the fight that broke out over their disparaging remarks, Sean Strickland has lately made headlines for sharing a very personal experience.

Sean Strickland talks about difficult childhood

Sean Strickland had a difficult childhood, with both his parents having problems with substance abuse. In addition to drug use, his father verbally and physically abused both Strickland and his mother. Strickland spoke about the trauma in his recent appearance on Theo Von’s podcast, ‘This Past Weekend‘.

“I would just sit there all night long by the feet of my mom and my dad, like, ‘I’m gonna fucking kill you,’ and this and that,” said Strickland about what he went through his childhood. “And I’ll never forget, like, he would talk about, like, burning her face with acid.”, Strickland further added, which even led to the middleweight champion bursting into tears.

Strickland has been very vocal about his trials and tribulations during childhood. He was always sarcastic when he spoke about those past haunting memories, but completely broke down during the podcast with Theo Von.

Some parts of the breakdown were related to the UFC 2024 Seasonal Press Conference where Strickland’s haunting past was used by Dricus Du Plessis and even bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, who was also at the press conference.

Sean Strickland’s rise to becoming UFC champion

Nobody in the MMA community anticipated Sean Strickland becoming a champion in 2023. He started the year with a short-notice fight against Nassourdine Imavov in January of 2023 which was followed by a second-round finish of Abusupiyan Magomedov in July of 2023. Both events were Fight Night headliners.

With Israel Adesanya scheduled to defend his title at UFC 293 Australia and the UFC not having a suitable challenger for the champion as the original challenger, Dricus Du Plessis pulled out due to injury, Sean Strickland stepped in on short notice as a very big betting underdog. However, he upset the champion winning 49-46 on all scorecards, and even scored a knockdown in round 1.

Strickland made his debut in the UFC as a former undefeated King of the Cage middleweight champion. However, after a couple of fights in the division, he moved down to welterweight, where he sported a 5-3 win-loss record before an unfortunate motorcycle accident. Strickland would return two years later, in the middleweight division and reel in five consecutive victories before facing the unranked Alex Pereira for a middleweight title eliminator fight.

Pereira would knock out Strickland in the first round and go on to claim the middleweight title from Israel Adesanya. Strickland, on the other hand, went on to lose his fight with former title challenger Jared Cannonier at UFC Fight Night 216, the final UFC event of 2022. Nonetheless, Pereira and Strickland would later become friends and even train with one another.

Do you think Sean Strickland successfully defends the middleweight title at UFC 297? Leave your prediction below!