After Sean Strickland defeated Khamzat Chimaev via split decision to reclaim the UFC middleweight title, analyst Luke Thomas made it clear that personal dislike for an athlete’s personality should never overshadow legitimate accomplishments inside the cage.
In a recent video, Thomas addressed viewers who believe his political opinions influence the way he covers MMA.
“There’s a lot of people who, and I understand it because I now do like political coverage explicitly, they think that that colors everything I have to say about the game,” Thomas said. “And the reality is most people in the game don’t see the world the way that I do. But that’s irrelevant. When a person has achieved at a high level, it is important to give that to them.”
He then openly admitted that he is far from a fan of Sean Strickland outside of competition.
“I just want everyone to know, you might be watching this and you might be like, ‘Yeah, I love Sean Strickland,’” Thomas said. “I do not like his stick. The stuff he says drives me crazy. I just don’t like it.”
Still, Thomas stressed that his personal feelings could not diminish what Strickland accomplished against Khamzat Chimaev.
“But on a night like tonight, when guys do what they do, I hope that anyone else out there who may not like Sean Strickland, I’m not telling you to change the way that you view it,” Thomas explained. “I’m talking to the people who might be reluctant to. You have to… defensively sound as s**t, offensively narrow and somewhat limited, but like a dog on a bone pushing on it.”
Thomas then put Strickland’s achievement into historical context, comparing him to MMA stars who lost UFC titles and later regained them: a list featuring names such as Randy Couture, Georges St-Pierre, Amanda Nunes, Dominick Cruz, and Jose Aldo.
“Add Sean Strickland to the list,” Thomas said. “Sean Strickland’s name is now added to that list. That is unmistakable championship pedigree. That is what that means and you have to accept it because it’s true.”
He also emphasized the difficulty of Strickland’s road back to the title.
“He had to beat the second best middleweight of all time and then the new guy who was the boogeyman,” Thomas said. “To do that in enemy territory the first time, relatively speaking.”
Thomas continued by highlighting the caliber of opponents Strickland defeated during his championship run.
“He didn’t just beat, you know, this isn’t like, oh, he beat Dave Menne and Phil Baroni era middleweights,” he said. “He beat Izzy, took the belt from him, and he beat Khamzat Chimaev.”
The conversation eventually shifted toward Strickland’s long-term legacy, with Thomas even floating the possibility of Hall of Fame recognition.
“Honestly, he might end up getting in the UFC Hall of Fame with something like this,” Thomas said.
To close out his thoughts, Thomas doubled down on the point he had been making throughout the segment. “You gotta give it up,” he said. “That is unmistakable championship pedigree.”
