Sean Strickland still believes that he was screwed over by the judges in his last fight at UFC 297 in January.
The then-middleweight champion lost the title to Dricus Du Plessis in his first defense via the scorecards in Toronto, Canada.
Judge Sal D’Amato scored the fight in Strickland’s favor, giving him rounds one, three and five. Derek Cleary and Eric Colon, meanwhile, saw the fight going the opposite way and both scored the middle rounds to Du Plessis, giving Strickland the first and final rounds.
The former champion has been very honest about how he believes there was potential bias and judges being influenced incorrectly that went against him on that night.
#UFC297 Official Scorecard: Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis 👇
All Scorecards ➡️: https://t.co/Dgf6RIXYJN pic.twitter.com/RdzXOrtCV6
— UFC News (@UFCNews) January 21, 2024
Sean Strickland BlamesJudges For His Loss At UFC 297, Calls Out How Easily Influenced They Are
In a fight week interview with Daniel Cormier ahead of his return this weekend at UFC 302, Strickland spoke about his views on the judges.
Cormier had questioned whether Strickland’s losses to the likes of Du Plessis and Jared Cannonier could be an issue in this fight with Paulo Costa owing to the fact he narrowly loses rounds despite not taking too much damage.
In Strickland’s opinion, it’s not his actions in these fights that are the problem, it’s the judges, the way they score the fights, and how easily influenced they are by corners.
“It also comes down to bad f****** judges that like, you know, they see guys throwing output and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s doing good.’ Like, what? No. Even when I fought Jared, and Jared’s a good guy, he’ll throw a combination, I block every single one of them and his corner is like, ‘That’s good, that right hand landed,’ and I’m like, what do you f****** know, didn’t even f****** touch me. But, you know, you have stupid a** judges that are like listening to the corners, as much as they don’t say that, whenever you have a corner saying, ‘You’re winning, you’re throwing punches,’ and the judge is like, ‘He must be winning, his corner is saying so.’
“Dude, judges don’t give a f*** bro, look at judging like a lot of times, they don’t even watch the fight. They don’t give a f***, they’re just government officials just f****** collecting a paycheck.”
