Joshua Van comments on Sean Strickland's ongoing UFC pay dispute

Joshua Van does not believe that reigning UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland has a leg to stand on regarding his current money issues with the promotion. In fact, he believes that Strickland has gone about the entire situation in the worst way possible.

No sympathy for Sean Strickland from Joshua Van

In the latest edition of Outta Pocket with RGIII, current UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van was asked about the ongoing controversy involving both the UFC and two-time middleweight titleholder Sean Strickland. While he understands Strickland's desire for higher pay, especially as he's the promotion's middleweight champion again, he does not believe that Strickland approached the UFC in the best way, arguing that making his frustrations public will only hurt his attempts at negotiating with Dana White and co. (41:46):

"I think this is what Strickland should have done. He just signed a contract in May, then fought Khamzat , right? Then he won. Instead of going on Twitter and going on and all that sh*t, he should have talked to Dana and said, 'I want to renegotiate behind closed doors.' Then the boss would have been like, 'Okay, let's talk about this, what you want. You beat the boogeyman.' So, now it's a whole mess. If you work a 9 to 5 job and you go off to your boss like, 'Pay me this much,' they're going to be like, 'What the f*ck?' So, now he's in a bad spot, right now. Now he's still under contract, so now I don't know how that's going to work."

There is, however, no way to know whether Strickland did approach White in private and talks still broke down, causing Strickland to resort to negotiating in public. The situation first arose when it was reported that Strickland's first title defense in his second reign as middleweight champion was being planned and that he'd face Nassourdine Imavov in a rematch at UFC 335, having previously beaten him via unanimous decision at light heavyweight at UFC Vegas 67 back in 2023. 

Negotiations stalled when Strickland felt that he was not being compensated fairly as champion, leaving the fight in limbo, despite Nassourdine's attempts at goading him. However, White has since addressed the Strickland situation by claiming that there's nothing to worry about, while Strickland himself has since gone silent on the pay dispute, though no resolution has been made, at least not publicly.