Sean Strickland Torches UFC 297 Women's Co-Main Event: "Is This Like A UFC Quota?"

"Why do you do Canada dirty like this?”

Sean Strickland still isn’t thrilled about the fact that a women’s bantamweight title fight between Mayra Bueno Silva and Raquel Pennington will feature as the co-main event for UFC 297 this weekend.

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The first UFC PPV of 2024 is set to go down this Saturday at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, and the card is headlined by a middleweight title bout between Strickland and #2-ranked Dricus Du Plessis.

A huge upset at UFC 293 in September saw Strickland claim the middleweight belt from Israel Adesanya, and in a recent interview with CBS Sports the 32-year-old once again lamented the fact that a women’s bout is the co-main event for his first title defense.

Strickland claimed the UFC middleweight belt last September :: (Jasmin Frank/USA TODAY Sports)

“They gave us a woman co-main event for a f***ing vacant belt,” Strickland told Shakiel Mahjouri. “Maybe we change it to like 'the UFC scissor organization', it might get a little bit more buys, you know?”

The matchup between Bueno Silva and Pennington was actually the first title bout scheduled for UFC 297, and after Strickland was booked to meet Du Plessis at the event the middleweight champion made headlines for his comments about being brought in to “help a couple ladies do their job”.

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Fight fans have quickly become used to hearing Strickland make all kinds of off-color statements during his interviews, and apparently he feels like the UFC has done Canada a disservice by booking a women’s title bout as the UFC 297 co-main event.

Bueno Silva will feature as one half of the UFC 297 co-main event :: (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

“At the press conference, every time they ask me a question I’m gonna f***ing defer to my counterpart, Mayra…Like “Hey Mayra, will you please answer this question for me, for the people?'...Is this like a UFC quota we’re trying to f***ing hit? Does this have to happen? Why do you do Canada dirty like this?”

Regardless of Strickland’s opinion on the fight, the matchup between Bueno Silva and Pennington promises to be a huge bout for the future of the women’s bantamweight division as the UFC looks to crown a new champion following Amanda Nunes’ retirement.

In addition to the two title bouts at the top of the card, UFC 297 also features a number of top Canadian fighters and marks the promotion's first trip to Toronto since UFC 231 took place there in 2018.

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