Sean Strickland has requested free tickets to the upcoming Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano five-round headliner, drawing a sharp response from MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian and a surprisingly open reply from Rousey.
Rousey and Carano are scheduled to headline an MVP MMA event on Netflix at Inuit Dome in Los Angeles, with UFC veterans Francis Ngannou and Philipe Lins also set to compete on the main card. Eric Nicksick said Strickland wanted tickets to support Ngannou.
Bidarian revealed the request and called out the UFC middleweight champion’s past behavior toward the headliners. “I got a request today from Sean Strickland,” Bidarian said, before adding, “I’ve got to talk to Ronda because he was very derogatory about Ronda and Gina – disrespectful, saying inappropriate things. While we’d love to have him as a UFC champion, and I think he puts on a tremendous act, you can’t disrespect the headliners and then call for free tickets.”
Rousey, however, signaled she was willing to let Strickland attend. “Sure, yeah, he can come,” she said, later adding, “I’m glad that he has to go through me now. I feel very cool about that. But yeah, sure, come on over. We can convert anyone.”
Strickland recently defeated Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC 328 in Newark, retaining his status as UFC middleweight champion ahead of the high-profile “Rousey vs. Carano” card in the City of Angels on Sat. night (May 16).
