Strickland Could Walk Away From UFC Gold — and Imavov Is Stuck Waiting
GOATIFYSean Strickland won back the UFC middleweight championship in May. Five months later, he is publicly considering giving it up. The champion's latest complaints about compensation have moved beyond familiar fighter-pay criticism: he has floated a switch to light heavyweight to finish his contract and a possible boxing payday against Jake Paul afterward. Neither move is confirmed, but the threat arrives while his next title defense remains unsigned.
That timing matters. A proposed meeting with Nassourdine Imavov did not make the UFC 335 card, and the challenger has already tried to force the issue with a striking financial challenge of his own. Strickland is using the belt he fought to regain as leverage, while the UFC must decide how long its 185-pound division can wait. This is a negotiation with consequences for more than one fighter.
A Champion Is Treating His Belt as Negotiating Leverage
Strickland's central complaint is the gap he perceives between the money earned by established UFC champions and the enormous purses attached to a handful of combat-sports spectacles. In posts made on October 7, he contrasted his position with the reported sums associated with Conor McGregor and high-profile boxing deals. Those figures are his comparison points, not independently disclosed details of Strickland's own contract. What is unambiguous is the choice he says he is considering: surrender the middleweight belt, compete at 205 pounds and work through his remaining UFC obligations.
The threat is more significant because Strickland is not a contender trying to secure his first championship opportunity. He became a two-time middleweight titleholder by edging Khamzat Chimaev in a split decision at UFC 328 in Newark in May. That upset gave him renewed bargaining power, a place atop the division and a clear route to major title defenses. Walking away from those opportunities would be a costly decision in sporting terms, even if he believes another route would be financially superior.
Strickland has also argued that making 185 pounds carries a physical cost he no longer wants to absorb without the compensation he expects. Moving to light heavyweight could reduce the demands of his weight cut, but it would not automatically shorten or end his contractual commitments. Nor would announcing a change of division guarantee that the promotion schedules the exact fights he wants. Contract terms, rankings, availability and UFC matchmaking all remain relevant.
There is a difference between a champion expressing anger and a champion formally vacating. As of October 8, Strickland still holds the title and no new weight-class debut has been announced. His public statements therefore work both as a warning and as a negotiating tactic. The test is whether the two sides can find an agreement before the dispute begins to freeze the division's title picture.
The Imavov Fight Is the Immediate Sporting Casualty
The clearest evidence that the dispute already matters is the missing title fight on December's UFC 335 lineup. Strickland and Nassourdine Imavov had been discussed as a possible headliner for the December 12 show in Las Vegas. Strickland indicated in September that negotiations were close and that pay was the outstanding issue. No agreement followed. Instead, the promotion scheduled Charles Oliveira against Diego Lopes for the BMF title, with Alex Pereira facing Sergei Pavlovich in a five-round heavyweight co-main event.
Imavov has not quietly accepted the delay. Reports this week described his offer to put up $500,000 of his own money if he lost a title challenge to Strickland, coupled with pressure for the UFC to act if the champion refuses to defend. It is a remarkable public maneuver, but it does not itself create a sanctioned purse, a signed bout agreement or a title-stripping decision. The offer chiefly underscores how badly the challenger wants the opportunity and how frustrated the division has become.
The matchup is not merely a convenient piece of matchmaking. Imavov has developed into a serious middleweight contender, and he already shares history with Strickland, who defeated him by unanimous decision in January 2023. A rematch would measure the challenger's progress against a champion whose pressure, defensive wrestling and steady jab have repeatedly made elite opponents uncomfortable. It would also settle an obvious question in the rankings rather than leave contenders waiting on a dispute they cannot control.
UFC 335 proceeding without the middleweight belt does not mean the promotion has made a final decision about Strickland's future. A defense in early 2027 remains conceivable if negotiations restart. But every additional month raises the stakes: Imavov needs a date, other contenders need clarity and the champion needs either a new deal or a realistic route to compete. The longer the standoff continues, the less it resembles ordinary pre-fight bargaining and the more it becomes a divisional problem.
Jake Paul Is the Big-Money Idea — Not an Agreed Fight
Strickland's most attention-grabbing alternative is a fight with Jake Paul. He has raised the possibility before, but the latest comments connect that idea directly to a specific career plan: leave middleweight, complete his UFC deal and seek a lucrative crossover contest. Paul has responded publicly, inviting Strickland to discuss a fight once he is free of his current promotional obligations. That is an expression of interest, not a signed contract or a date on the calendar.
The attraction is straightforward. Crossover boxing sells a personality-driven event to an audience wider than the usual MMA rankings debate. Strickland's outspoken style and status as a UFC champion would make him a recognizable opponent, while Paul has repeatedly shown that his commercial profile can generate attention even when a proposed matchup is far from conventional championship boxing. Neither name alone, however, establishes what a realistic purse or fight agreement would look like.
There are practical obstacles on both sides. Strickland remains tied to the UFC, and switching weight classes would not necessarily make those obligations disappear quickly. Paul, meanwhile, has dealt with recovery and scheduling questions after his December 2025 boxing defeat to Anthony Joshua. Any contest would require medical clearance, a negotiated weight, a promoter, a broadcaster and an agreement on financial terms. For now, none of those pieces has been announced for a Strickland-Paul bout.
That uncertainty is why the story should not be mistaken for a fight booking. The Paul option may be most valuable to Strickland before it ever becomes a real event: it illustrates the outside market he believes he could enter and makes his frustration with the current offer impossible to ignore. But using a hypothetical payday as leverage carries risk. If the UFC calls his bluff, the champion could face a long wait with neither a title defense nor a crossover fight guaranteed.
For middleweight, the urgent question is not whether Strickland can make headlines about Jake Paul. It is whether the champion will defend the belt he reclaimed against Chimaev. Imavov has a compelling claim to the next opportunity, and the UFC's December schedule is already moving on without that matchup.
A revised agreement could turn the public confrontation into an ordinary title-fight announcement. A genuine decision to vacate would send the division down a very different path. Until one of those outcomes occurs, Strickland remains champion, Paul remains a possible future opponent rather than a booked one, and the contenders are left waiting for a business decision to become a sporting one.
