Jack Hermansson isn’t paying much attention to Sean Strickland’s words. It’s almost impossible to ignore some of the comments while they prepare for Saturday’s main event at UFC Vegas 47.
While Strickland hasn’t directly tried to disparage Hermansson, he’s spent plenty of time detailing how it would make him “super happy” to actually kill an opponent in the octagon. If not for finding MMA and using that as an outlet for his anger, Strickland said he would “fantasize” about murdering someone all the time.
Of course, Hermansson doesn’t necessarily take anything Strickland is saying at face value but he also knows those kinds of statements are just detrimental to the sport as a whole.
” Our sport has been controversial because we fight with the least rules possible and are still safe,” Hermansson stated to MMA Fighting. “In Norway where I live, MMA is still illegal, which means that we can’t be fighting on our home turf and we are fighting for it to be legal.
” When people say these kinds of things in sport, it doesn’t help our cause. It would be nice if people were more cautious with this kind of thing. As long as my sport is represented well , it should be fine
During a long battle to get MMA legalized in states such as New York, legislators opposed to the sport would reference injuries suffered in fights as well as comments like those from Strickland in an attempt to prove the barbaric nature of the competition.
Whether Strickland really believes it or not, Hermansson is aware that it can be difficult for newcomers to appreciate MMA while potentially giving ammunition to those who oppose legalizing it in a country such as Norway.
“It doesn’t play in our favor,” Hermansson said. We just need to remind people that Sean is not the only one. It’s a part of his personality, hopefully. Let’s all hope .”
Hermansson isn’t sure how Strickland will react to him during fight week. The two haven’t spoken much about one another.
Even if Strickland continues to fetishize his desire for a death in the UFC, Hermansson isn’t going to let anything get under his skin as he remains focused on the task at hand because winning is really the only thing that matters to him right now.
” What can you think of? Hermansson stated. You can laugh at it, but it hasn’t caused me any pain. He’s likely to say crazy things, and I expect that. He’s not disrespectful. This is not necessarily rubbish talk.
” I’m up for anything, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he uses some controversial words during the build-up to the fight .”
