Sean Strickland

Sean Strickland is one of MMA's most divisive figures, a fighter who climbed through years of UFC competition before authoring a stunning 2023 upset - a wire-to-wire boxing clinic over Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight title. His record sits around 31-7.

In the cage he's a pressure boxer: tight defensive shell, constant forward movement, and a punishing jab that piles up volume. He's not a big finisher, and detractors call his style point-fighting, but he wins rounds by walking opponents down and never letting up. He lost the belt in a razor-thin split decision to Dricus du Plessis and dropped a rematch, then bounced back with wins over Paulo Costa and Khamzat Chimaev.

Outside the cage, Strickland is impossible to ignore - blunt, loud and endlessly quotable, which makes him both a fan favorite and a lightning rod. For newcomers, he's the guy people argue about constantly: love him or hate him, he stays in the title conversation.