Sean Strickland defended by Gilbert Burns amid recent criticism

Sean Strickland has been defended by Gilbert Burns in the midst of recent criticism of his performance at UFC 312 last weekend.

As we know, Sean Strickland fell short against Dricus du Plessis in their UFC middleweight championship rematch at UFC 312. It was a fairly one-sided victory for du Plessis, with many questioning the way in which Sean fought throughout the duration of the contest.

In addition to suffering a broken nose, he didn’t quite seem to go for it in the fifth round despite his coach Eric Nicksick encouraging him to do so – which led to Nicksick being pretty disappointed with him, as the Xtreme Couture coach made clear in a recent interview.

Now, however, Sean Strickland is receiving props from some interesting places, including from Gilbert Burns.

Gilbert Burns defends Sean Strickland

“Maybe he wasn’t feeling good, whatever,” Burns said on his “Show Me The Money” podcast. “We’re never going to know, right? But to say, ‘Oh, he talks a lot, he doesn’t back it up,’ I don’t like that. I think the guy backs it up many times. He backed it up against Imavov, he backed it up against my guy Brendan Allen, he backed it up against so many guys, right? Paulo Costa, (Israel) Adesanya, bro, he beat a lot of the best guys, and people are saying, ‘Oh, he just talks, he doesn’t do much.’

“I think that’s very disrespectful. People have very short memories. It’s the reels day, you know? It’s the TikTok days where you swipe, you see something nice, and swipe again, and it’s gone. But it wasn’t long ago the guy was the champion, fighting everybody. He beat so many good guys, and people are now talking, ‘Oh, he talks a lot, he’s crazy,’ but I like it. And the guy backs it up, or he tries at least.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie