Former middleweight champion Strickland faced the man who beat him to take his title, Dricus Du Plessis, in the main event in Sydney, Australia. And, rather than exacting revenge, the American ended up losing by an even more decisive margin as he suffered a unanimous decision loss after losing all of the rounds on two of the judges’ scorecards, and winning just one round on the third.
And, as the dust settled on Du Plessis’ victory, and Strickland’s defeat, UFC 170-pound champ Muhammad posted a video to his social media to slam Strickland’s performance.
“What did we learn?” Muhammad asked.
“We learned that Bully is always right. I’ve been saying it forever – Sean sucks. He’s trash. He talks a big game, but he never walks.
“Even to the fans that sit there and hype him up like he’s the best boxer, the best boxing defense, this and that. ‘He’s gonna go to war and he’s gonna kill.’ ‘I would bleed for my fans. I would die for my fans’. Blah blah.
“But you go out there and he just jabs and teeps and he fights like a scared little girl, and he doesn’t want to get hit.
“Even when you’re down four rounds, he doesn’t go all out. He doesn’t have it in him, unless there’s five seconds left in the fight, and he wants to yell and have that highlight reel, and wants people to say that he’s crazy, he’s nuts. He’s not.
“He’s just a racist little clown that’s hiding in the body of a fighter. He’s a scared little boy hiding in the body of a fighter. He’s a coward, and he shows it in his fights.”
— Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) February 9, 2025
Muhammad then said that he fully expects Strickland to use the staph infection he appeared to have on his left shoulder during fight week as an excuse for his performance.
“Now he’s gonna come up with the ‘Oh man. But I had staph. Let me tell you, some of the guys, I get paid a lot of money, and I got staff so but I was gonna still fight for you guys, because I had to put a show on for my friend, my fans,'” he said.
“‘And then I broke my nose, so it messed up my whole fight, even though I lost the first three rounds just by jabbing one time every five minutes. And yeah, man, it was off on the staff. That’s why I wore sleeveless shirts at the press conference, so people could see it and have an excuse built up already, and my fans will know that I still stepped in there for you.
“He sucks. And finally, we get to get rid of giving this guy undeserved title shots.”
