Sean Strickland made light of Nassourdine Imavov’s intense staredown at the UFC Vegas 67 weigh-ins, but inside, he may have picked up some extra motivation to deliver a beatdown of his fellow UFC middleweight.
” I hate it when momf ****** does the staredown and they look at my face like that,” Strickland said to reporters following his unanimous victory over Imavov during the main event UFC Vegas 67.. “I f****** hate it. It makes me so f****** angry, dude. You’re not my f****** dad. Don’t look at me like that.”
Perhaps Imavov wanted to get in Strickland’s head after the veteran middleweight stepped up on less than one week’s notice for the Saturday’s headliner, the result of Kelvin Gastelum’s last-minute scratch from the event. Imavov was a betting favorite and carried the benefit of a full training camp into the fight.
What Imavov wasn’t prepared for was Strickland’s relentless assault over five rounds. He won striking exchanges, mixed in grappling, and took down Imavov. Judges gave Strickland the fight 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 to put him back in the win column after a decision loss to Jared Cannonier at UFC Vegas 66 just one month prior.
The unapologetically rude Strickland made Imavov’s expression of anger into a raunchy joke, as he described his demeanour.
” You see how the m *********** looked upon me at the weigh-ins?” Strickland inquired. How hard was it? F****** Frenchie. Too bad your f****** country doesn’t look at everybody that conquered them like that. Man, that was so f****** hard, you guys. Let me tell you something, guys. If I were on the street and saw a motherf look at me this way, I’d probably shoot them. This is what I don’t understand.
“When you look at a m*********** in the eyes like that, what are you trying to say? You know, like I want you to f*** me? When I see someone this way, I usually want to f*** with them. Are you trying to get into my head? M***********, I will f****** kill you, metaphorically speaking. If you see me that way, I will f ****** kill you and your family.
But, it’s a completely different story when Strickland is fighting. He enjoys watching his opponent, especially when they are suffering, in the heat of battle.
“Five-round fights are a little bit more fun,” he said. “It’s a bit more intimate. You get to know the guy better. You get to kind of see their soul. That’s nice. As the rounds progress, you could see what a m*********** is made of. As you start smelling the blood on your gloves, and you start feeling the f****** brain damage and the pain, you guys don’t know this, but when you hit a m*********** in the face, you can like see inside their f****** soul. It’s easy to see the true nature of their f***.
“And that s*** gets me off, you know? [Imavov] didn’t break. He fought until the end. I believed that. The greatest feeling in the f ****** universe is when another human being is f ****** broken. Like, you could f*** me if you want to. The Frenchman fought to the end. One of the most satisfying feelings is to be taken by another person and their soul .”
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Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/1/15/23555896/sean-strickland-hated-nassourdine-imavovs-weigh-in-staredown-at-ufc-vegas-67-it-makes-me-so-f-angry?rand=96749
