Daniel Cormier, Chael Sonnen defend Sean Strickland from backlash

LAS VEGAS – While many people in the MMA community trip over each other to get a negative word in about Sean Strickland following his title-fight loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312, two prominent voices in the space are going the other way.

During their media session ahead of filming “The Ultimate Fighter 33” reality series, UFC Hall of Famers Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen came to the defense of Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) amid a ruthless stream of backlash from fans, fighters, analysts and more.

“People are kind of piling on this guy,” Cormier told MMA Junkie and other reporters Wednesday. “It’s kind of crazy how much people are piling on, when, sure, he lost. But sometimes you get beat. You know what’s crazy? I get it. Someone people can say, ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.’ Dude, sometimes it just doesn’t f*cking work. Your intention is to go out there and die, then some guy kicks your butt to the point you’re like, ‘F*ck, man, I might actually have to die fighting this dude.’ And you’re like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ You have the right to pivot and turn.”

Sonnen agreed with Cormier’s line of thinking. He understands an annoyance that Strickland did not live of to his pre-fight promises in his one-sided unanimous decision defeat in which he was bloodied for the second half of the fight over a broken nose.

“Yeah, why (so much hate)? Did he do bad? I was proud of his effort,” Sonnen said. “Having your nose broken, it hurts really bad. Breaking a finger or breaking a nose? Two small things, but I’ll just tell you, the pain is really immense, and to watch Sean reset it and stay in that fight – the math was already against him with the nose broke. He was not going to win that fight. He did not have the power, he was not going to find the guy and the math was against him. So he can stay out there for another 12 minutes taking an ass-whooping because it was honorable, or he could quit. He chose to stay in there and take an ass-whooping.”

Among those who have gone after Strickland for failing to take the belt back that he lost to Du Plessis at UFC 297 in January 2024, were former UFC champ Luke Rockhold, ESPN analyst Din Thomas, his own Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick, and plenty more.

Sonnen doesn’t think it needs to be that harsh, and said Du Plessis deserves some praise for his performance.

“These people keep saying didn’t put out an effort, it’s not what I saw,” Sonnen said. “It was a fair adjudication, it turns out DDP is better. It turns out he’s better at this game of the unified rules than Sean was, and he walked away. That’s how it works. You shake hands, you walk away.”