Fans can’t get enough of Sean Strickland ahead of UFC 297.
So much so, that one fan decided to meet the UFC Middleweight Champion on stage in the middle of a pre-fight press conference. Strickland would shake the fan’s hand before he was detained by UFC security. The fan’s name was Zade, a teenager repping a t-shirt saying: ‘I’m Him’.
Video of Zade’s sprinting meet-and-greet with Strickland went viral online and more footage showed that Zade had actually parkoured himself from a nearby balcony to get onstage for a moment of a lifetime… all while dodging security on the way there.
Alternate angle of fan running past UFC security to meet Sean Strickland pic.twitter.com/hmqUWGgoh9
— Best MMA Moments (@XcellentMMA) January 19, 2024
Having a day to reflect on the presser chaos, Zade speaks on the experience.
“I was definitely thinking about [rushing the stage] it a few days prior,” Zade told MMA Islander. “I’m like, guys, I’m gonna go. I think this is my time… I’m going to meet Sean Strickland.”
“I struggled to get into the building ’cause it was so crowded. So, I’m like, if I don’t end up doing this now, I’ll probably never be able to like ever get that type of spotlight again – especially at a UFC event.”
Zade’s ‘mission impossible’ moment was given the green light by neighbouring UFC fans at the press conference.
“Some of the guys sitting next to me, all around me, we were all on the line together when it was just like a crowded try, just trying to get in and I whispered to the guy on my right, I’m like, ‘Hey man, I think I’m gonna go on stage’. He like FaceTimed all his friends and he is like, ‘yo, this kid next to us is about to do this’. With everyone encouraging me, I’m just like, you know what? I didn’t even pay money, so might as well.”
“I climbed over like the balcony. I was like, this is it, like I have to go. As soon as I ran on stage, I went up to Sean and I didn’t really know what to do. I was like, thinking to myself like, there’s a bunch of things I say, but I’ve just stuck my head out and then it just happened like that [with a handshake], by the time I got tackled by four security guards.“
The teenage fan wasn’t impressed by the UFC’s security.
“As soon as the guy behind me ran up on me, I kind of like scuffed his take down of both of them. I was confused ’cause like I thought he was behind me and then I looked down and like my knee is on his head and I’m like, these guys are just falling over each other. Like UFC’s just hiring anybody at this point to work as security.“
Once he was caught, Zade says he was detained for the rest of the press conference and was escorted out of the building.
“By the time the police arrived, they like had me held down in an office and the guy said that he’s handing me over to the cops and he doesn’t have any power. So he said it’s up to them, but he told them like he thought I was drunk or like I was on like something and I had to get tested. I had to walk in like a straight line. It was a like very weird experience.”
Zade relives the rest of the ‘very weird experience’ below, which even featured Sean Strickland’s coach Eric Nicksick getting ahold of Zade on social media for more footage of the viral run-in.
