I’m sure by now you’ve seen (or heard) the boorish, anti-everything rant from UFC Houston headliner and former UFC middleweight champion, Sean Strickland. “Tarzan” is one of those self-loathing alpha males who likes to dress his hatred in clothes of ideology while pandering to the well-documented dumbness of the average UFC fan.
Perhaps that’s why Strickland’s coach, Eric Nicksick, believes “people would get behind” a push for a UFC White House main event against reigning middleweight champion, Khamzat Chimaev. That’s assuming Strickland is able to defeat No. 4-ranked Anthony Hernandez in the UFC Houston headliner.
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“That fight would be sick,” Nicksick told Action Network (via Bloody Elbow). “You can make that a main event, and a lot of people would get behind that, and it would be epic. It’s Sean and he moves the needle. And obviously, with Khamzat being the champion now, there’s a backstory, Sean and Khamzat being training partners while Khamzat was in the gym, the back and forth and all that stuff.”
Strickland has been trashing Chimaev for the last several years.
“Stylistically, Sean can give Khamzat a tough fight,” Nicksick continued. “So if Sean’s able to go out there and get a good win and get some style points on that win, I certainly think within this division it could put him right back into title contention. Knowing Sean, if he comes out of this uninjured, he would love to fight on that card, so I can see him turning around pretty quick to do it if he wanted to.”
To be fair, Strickland already had a chance to fight Chimaev and turned it down.
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None of this matters unless Strickland can survive the “torture” from Hernandez in this weekend’s headliner. “Tarzan” has not competed since losing his championship rematch to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312 last year in Sydney and remains the betting underdog for his Octagon return.
To see who else is fighting at UFC Houston this weekend on Paramount+ click here.
