Sean Strickland does not think a prime Anderson Silva would be able to handle the modern game.
Asked about a fantasy matchup with Silva in an interview with Nina Drama, the UFC middleweight champion was direct. “I’d f*** him up,” Strickland said, per Full Mount MMA, before elaborating on his reasoning.
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Strickland argued the sport has evolved significantly since Silva’s dominant run at middleweight, framing each generation of fighters as a step forward from the last. In his view, the version of Silva that dominated the division from 2006 to 2012 would not be equipped for what today’s middleweights bring to bear.
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“Every generation gets better and better and better,” Strickland said. “So it’s kind of one of those hard fights to say, ‘Would I beat this guy up?’ Well, yeah, like naturally the sport is getting better.”
It is a bold position given who he is talking about. Silva holds the record for most consecutive UFC middleweight title defenses at 10 and finished his UFC run at 17-7. His pro record stands at 34-11. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.
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Strickland has his own resume to point to. He dethroned Khamzat Chimaev by split decision at UFC 328 to claim the middleweight title for a second time, having previously won it from Israel Adesanya by unanimous decision at UFC 293 in 2023 before losing it to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297.
His career was badly disrupted by a motorcycle crash in 2018 that required knee surgery and a layoff of roughly two years. He rebuilt from that setback to become a two-time champion, adding wins over Paulo Costa, Nassourdine Imavov, Brendan Allen, and Anthony Hernandez along the way.
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