What Happened to Sean Strickland’s Father? All About Ex-UFC Champ’s Abusive Childhood

The ever-vocal former middleweight champion Sean Strickland has often spoken about his childhood struggles and tumultuous upbringing. He has never shied away from talking about the horrors he had to face whenever he confronted his biological father. As such, let’s go down memory lane and look at the details of Strickland’s account of his father.

Sean Strickland is returning to action for the second time in 2024, as he’ll battle Paulo Costa at UFC 302 in Newark, New Jersey. Given that he’s one of the most popular athletes on the roster, he will certainly have his section of fans cheering him on during the co-main event. His raw and genuine magnetism, including how he opened up about the accounts of wrongdoings his father indulged in, is the biggest reason he garnered such popularity. But what did the 33-year-old’s father do? Well, let’s find that out.

Things his father has done, according to Sean Strickland

The former 185-pound champ has stated, more times than once, that his father was abusive, both physically and mentally. The relationship between Sean Strickland and his father was toxic, to say the least. However, the brunt of the abuse in the household was primarily faced by Strickland’s mother. Moreover, his father’s addiction was not just limited to alcohol, he indulged in prescription drugs as well.

“My father, abusive, alcoholic, drunk, you know. Got on pills later on. Everything about him, I hated. Yes, everything about him. I hated my dad,” said Sean Strickland on Extra Thiccc podcast. He would also detail the things his mother had to endure, and there was one instance when he had to step in and save his mother from getting choked.

“He f***ing gets on top of my mom… He gets on top of my mom and is like strangling her. Saying, ‘Tonight’s the night you’re gonna f***ing die,” Strickland told Ariel Helwani. “The only thing I see is a guitar, so I go and I grab the guitar, and I f*cking just smack him in the head as hard as I can. I grabbed the phone. I ran out and called the cops. My mom, her dumba**, bailed him out of jail the next day.”

Nothing was easy at home for the former middleweight champion. He once even encouraged his father to get himself out of his misery. But that would not happen. Nevertheless, His father would soon get ill and Sean Strickland has narrated the details about his father’s illness as well.

Where is the UFC star’s father now?

Sean Strickland’s father passed away because of cancer in 2017. During his debut on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the former champion would reveal to the host that when his father was ill, he was suffering from more than one kind of cancer. When doctors asked his father why he was unaware of such problems, he continued his old ways of abusing substances.

“He had every kind of cancer. I mean, like, body, brain, every kind of cancer. And I think the doctors were like, ‘Dude, how did you not know something was wrong?’… My dad was like, ‘Give me all the d***s. I am just gonna ride this b*tch out,” stated Sean Strickland. Now, ‘Tarzan’ and his mother are the only two people left in his family, besides his girlfriend, known as KJ.

Having grown out of those troubles in the past, Sean Strickland now lives to fight inside the Octagon. Having touched UFC gold once, it remains to be seen if he can get a title shot once again, but of course, if he can beat ‘Borrachinha’. What do you predict for the fight at UFC 302?