One thing I really don't like about some of the in-ring post fight interviews is that the fighters will often go on and on promoting themselves or even take this time to say some sort of dumb political or activist bullcrap when DC or Joe Rogan is just trying to get some words from them after the fight.
Sean Strickland gave what I consider to be one of the most perfect post-fight interviews in UFC history after his loss to Dricus du Plessis at the recent UFC pay-per-view fight.
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It was a close fight and it was damn entertaining. It was certainly the best fight on a rather weak card for a PPV event and the bar I was at to watch it wasn't nearly as busy as they normally would be for these sorts of events. Strickland just doesn't have the pull that other fighters do and as I mentioned before, I think this is why he was trying to go for a heel persona in his interviews leading up to this event. I don't think he really is as much of a bad guy as he was making himself out to be leading up to this fight and I think that he did exactly what he needed to do to maintain some glory even after facing defeat.
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The entire interview with Daniel Cormier took a total of 47 seconds including the time that DC was asking him a question. Then Sean wasted no time before taking the microphone from Cormier and addressing the crowd that had stood behind him despite the fact that the fight was in Canada and Strickland is not Canadian. He said "I promised you I would bleed for you Canada, and that is exactly what I did. Congratulations to the new champ, I'm out of here!"
The crowd roared in applause and he didn't even give DC a chance to ask him any additional questions or show any replays. This might have disappointed DC and UFC but it sure as hell was appealing to the crowd and honestly, we don't get to see enough of that in UFC these days. In my mind, most of what the UFC does is specifically designed to make more money via their sponsors and this was very refreshing to see. He didn't make any excuses, he didn't try to promote his brand or charity, he didn't waste and time going off on some long-winded political diatribe despite the fact that he is a rather outspoken person as far as his political leanings are.... he just said something awesome and then walked away.
You can see the entire 47 second clip here if you want to and I think you should.
I didn't think that Strickland was going to be champ for very long and I was right, for once. However, he did exactly the right thing in defeat and because of that I think he made a lot of new fans. Furthermore, he probably could have won this fight if he had played a safer offense and kept at a distance like a lot of other fighters do when they are simply trying to not lose rather than win. This is not what Strickland did at all. He brought the fight to his opponent the entire 5 rounds and at no point was he doing a "run away offense" in order to win on the scorecards. He promised a war and that is what we, the fans, got.
This is one of the only times that I can say, in the years that I have been watching this sport, that it may have actually benefitted Strickland as a brand by him losing that fight with grace. Well done Sean. I will be looking for you in the future and I think a lot of other people will as well.