Sean Strickland is pretty notoriously famous for his controversial opinion and unfiltered comments about most fighters as well as news reporters. He has had many rivalries with different fighters, such as Dricus Du Plessis and Nassourdine Imavov. Now, when it comes to the latter, the middleweight fighter had an intense and pretty awkward beef with him before their fight.

Let’s go down memory lane and see what kind of controversial feud these two fighters had before their UFC Vegas 67 fight.

Sean Strickland made some controversial comments after defeating Nassourdine Imavov

Strickland had first of all commented on his opponent’s intense staredown at UFC Vegas 67 weigh-ins. He said, “I hate it when motherf****** do the staredown, and they look at me like that,” Strickland decided to tell the reporters after his unanimous decision win over Imavov in the UFC Vegas 67. He continued, “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 just wanted to play mind games without using any words and wanted to get inside Strickland’s head. This might be because the middleweight fighter stepped up with only one week’s notice for the headliner because of Kelvin Gastelum’s sudden withdrawal from the event.

During the post-fight pressure as well, the 29 – 6 – 0 champ said, “I don’t I am not gonna try to say that fu** name man. I’m just, let’s just call him the Frenchie. The French, And if we have learned anything about the French Best at? Giving up. So I mean I haven’t watched him fight I know he likes to I know he likes to bang Add those big punches but you know he is still fu** French man.”

He continued talking about France and decided to insult the country where the Dagestani moved from his home country. However, ‘Tarzan’ also added in the end that maybe his opponent was going to prove that France could be brave.

This also might have triggered their beef because later on Imamov commented on what his opponent had said. The unapologetically raw Strickland made fun of his opponent’s intense demeanor both before and after the fight.

Imavov hits back at ‘The Tarzan’

Strickland had decided to file in for Kelvin Gastelum. At UFC Fight Night 217 had insulted the fighter’s geographical associations with France. However, according to Imamov, he even spoke harshly after the fight, which did not sit well with the Dagestani fighter.

He retold the same to CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri, saying, “ You know he said a lot of bad things about Remo lacking respect from me you know, especially after the fight. I mean once the fight is over and you get the win Talking sheet at the press conference You know it’s not something respectful.”

When asked about a rematch, he said that there was a big difference in weight that they had, but he was more concerned about his fighting style than the weight. Before fighting Jared Cannonier, he had said that after Cannonier he would like to fight Strickland. He told KhelNow, “After this fight against Cannonier, I would like to fight the guy closer to the belt because the belt is my goal. It could be Sean Strickland, who is currently the #1 in the rankings. We shared history, and we fought, but it was not in the right condition for me because I was not in my weight class. So revenge would be nice, but any fight that gets me closer to the belt would be a nice fight after this one.”

Imamov even had a special interview with Essentially Sports and declared that the first time he had caught Strickland, the latter was 10 KG heavier than him. Imamov was also practicing his wrestling because he was getting ready to face Kevin Gastelum. He also knew that the middleweight champion was a fighter who was best on his feet, so he was also training for the same. Surprisingly, even though they both had a little beef, Imamov respects Strickland. Surprisingly, Imavov confirmed that Strickland was going to win against Israel Adesanya.

Imamov has his next fight against Brendan Allen, while Strickland just won a fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 302. Do you think they will fight again in the future?