Sean Strickland never shies away from voicing his opinions on sensitive topics, and that remained true when it came to criticizing the UFC over fighter pay once again. The UFC middleweight champion has emerged as one of the promotion’s most vocal critics regarding their fighter compensation. However, ‘Tarzan’ has now taken his criticism to another level, slamming prominent UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby. 

“It’s so predatory. Mind you, you could get a couple fights. The UFC, they love for you to take a short-notice fight,” Strickland said on the Shawn Ryan Show. “If the UFC calls you and they say, ‘Hey, you want to take a fight on a five-day notice?’ They will give you like, maybe a 30, 40, 50-grand pay bump. The UFC loves that s–t. Short-notice fights give you the biggest pay bumps. There’s a [matchmaker] named Sean Shelby. Everybody hates dealing with him. I’m friends with him, but he was my [matchmaker] at welterweight. Dude, he was such a f—–g c–t. I say this as a friend, Sean. You’re a nice guy, but everybody f—–g hates you.

“This guy is so f—–g brutal. You could have a boring fight or something, and this motherf—-r will bench you for like eight months. Or you could say, ‘Hey Sean, I want a fight.’ He’ll call you two weeks out from a fight, like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a fight for you.’ Dude, two weeks out. You can’t give me a little more f—–g notice? And if you say no, he’ll bench your a–. Yeah, the UFC is f—–g brutal.”

When it comes to compensating fighters for accepting bouts on short notice, the UFC has certainly provided significant pay increases to those willing to step in on short notice. Most notably, Dan Ige once revealed that he received nearly “triple” his usual pay for accepting a fight against Diego Lopes at UFC 303 in June 2024 on just four hours’ notice. The opposite is true as well. Multiple fighters have in the past pointed out how refusing to take a fight got them benched for several months. In that regard, Sean Strickland’s statement does present the truth at some level. Even the middleweight champion himself has competed in several short-notice fights, which may explain why he got the title shot twice.

In January 2023, Strickland replaced Kelvin Gastelum to face Nassourdine Imavov on just five days’ notice in a light heavyweight clash and emerged victorious. Later, he accepted his first title fight against Israel Adesanya on roughly a month’s notice at UFC 293 in September 2023. Once again, Strickland delivered, defeating ‘The Last Stylebender’ to become the UFC middleweight champion, only to lose it later to Dricus du Plessis. While it remains unclear whether the UFC paid Strickland substantially more than his regular purse for either of those fights, Ige’s case suggests that he could have received a significant pay bump for stepping in on short notice. Also, as is evident from the pattern, Strickland taking the fight on short notice made UFC reward him with a title shot.

Even so, the two-time middleweight champion went off on the UFC over its practice of signing fighters from outside the United States and paying them all pretty much the same.

Strickland believes the promotion deliberately recruits more fighters from countries like Russia and Brazil because it can pay them a base purse of $10,000 to show and win, and effectively keep its overall costs down. In turn, he argued, that money carries greater value for fighters from those countries. Citing these concerns, Strickland urged emerging fighters, especially Americans, not to join the UFC.

“This is why the UFC attracts f—–g degenerates, 10 and 10 for a lot of guys, where they come from, that’s still a lot of f—–g money,” he added. “But yes, I would tell anybody, ‘Don’t join the UFC.’”

As Sean Strickland pointed out, for some, even that minuscule pay would be good enough. For example, if a fighter from Brazil gets the $10,000 base pay, the amount would convert into roughly 51,000 Brazilian reais, which is considered a very high income bracket in the country. But for an American, that amount, especially considering the deductions that immediately follow, for lack of a better word, is peanuts. As Strickland said earlier in the same interview, it wouldn’t be enough to cover rent for a few months. As such, the fighter from Brazil could live a much better life than the one in America.

So, ‘Tarzan’ is not entirely wrong in pointing that out. The 35-year-old had also called UFC’s fighter pay practices “predatory” before his bout at UFC Houston earlier this year.

Now, it’s not only Sean Strickland who has criticized matchmaker Sean Shelby. Previously, a former champion also displayed his disdain toward the matchmaker.

Sean O’Malley criticized Sean Shelby and called him a “f—–g tool”

Back in 2021, Sean O’Malley stood out as one of the UFC’s emerging stars, dazzling audiences with his performances. One of ‘Suga’s’ most dominant outings came against Kris Moutinho at UFC 264, where his three-round beatdown drew shades of Max Holloway’s one-sided demolition of Calvin Kattar. But despite being a promising star, O’Malley cited problems dealing with Sean Shelby. 

During a podcast in the same year, the former bantamweight champion revealed that Shelby adamantly pushed for his next fight to take place in New York. However, O’Malley wasn’t interested because of the state’s tax laws and instead wanted his next bout to take place in Las Vegas. As such, he criticized Shelby, calling him a “f— tool.”

“I don’t even know if I’m supposed to say this,” O’Malley said. “I was talking to my manager, and he was talking to Sean Shelby and Sean Shelby was mad at me. Dude, I don’t wanna fight in New York. It’s far, the taxes are ridiculous, and Tim (Welch) has no-Gi ADCC trials that weekend. He told me that before I even potentially had a fight.

“So, that’s his thing, and I’m not gonna say, ‘No. I have a fight, we’re doing it,’ especially when I could fight like a month later in Vegas. And Sean Shelby was just like, mad and like, ‘Fine. Go hang out with 6ix9ine’. Just acting like a f—–g tool, dude.

It appears that Sean Shelby has a history of animosity with fighters when it comes to fight negotiations. But it would be interesting to see whether his relationship with Sean Strickland remains intact after the middleweight champion went on a full-blown rant against one of the UFC’s most prominent figures.

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