Sean Strickland feels he’ll never win a close UFC fight: “You can’t judge me and say you’re not biased”

Former UFC champion Sean Strickland doesn’t see himself winning a closely-contested fight due to his colorful personality and demeanor outside of the Octagon.

Strickland last fought at UFC 302 against former middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa, earning a split decision win. He got back in the win column after falling to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 in January.

Strickland was on the wrong end of two judges’ scorecards after his clash with du Plessis. He lost by split decision in a fight that was back-and-forth over five rounds.

After falling short at UFC 297, and an odd scorecard given to Costa at UFC 302, Strickland doesn’t have much faith in winning a grind-it-out type of fight.

Sean Strickland is not confident in future fights that go the distance

In a recent interview with ESPN‘s Brett Okamoto, Strickland was asked whether or not he feels he needs to change his style to adapt to the judging criteria.

“A lot of it is perception because I do have a really weird style where I’m missing by inches,” Strickland said. “And all the judges, they just don’t know what the f*** they’re talking about with fighting. They’ve never been in a fight. Most of these p***ies don’t even watch the fights. You’ll see clips of judges d***ing off while a fight is going on…

“As much as anybody doesn’t want to say they’re biased, I have such a strong personality that you can’t judge me and say you’re not biased,” Strickland continued. “Say you’re a liberal and you hate [Donald Trump], and if it’s a close fight, you’re not gonna vote for [the Trump-supporting fighter]. It kind of sucks to know that you’ll never win a close fight.”

Strickland is the likely next title challenger for du Plessis, who defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 last weekend. The fight could potentially happen by the end of the year.