Strickland Admits to Being Tapped Out '20 Times' by Fellow UFC Champion

Sean Strickland has made another candid admission, revealing he has been submitted approximately 20 times by a fellow UFC champion during training.

Strickland, the 35-year-old middleweight champion out of Xtreme Couture, has long been known for his willingness to speak without filter about life inside and outside the gym. The latest admission fits that pattern, with the American openly acknowledging that a fellow titleholder has repeatedly caught him in submissions on the mat. It is a striking confession from a fighter who carries a 31-7-0 professional record and stands as one of the most durable and active strikers in the 185-pound division.

Standing six-foot-one with a 76-inch reach, Strickland has built his reputation largely on his offensive output, landing 6.04 significant strikes per minute with 42 percent accuracy. His grappling has been more of a secondary tool, averaging just 0.2 submission attempts per 15 minutes, which makes the admission about his struggles on the ground in sparring all the more believable.

Why it matters

• The revelation highlights a genuine grappling vulnerability for the reigning middleweight champion
• It raises questions about how Strickland matches up against submission-oriented opponents at the highest level
• The identity of the fellow champion involved adds an intriguing layer to the story and to potential future matchmaking

Strickland's frankness about being tapped out repeatedly is consistent with the no-nonsense training culture at Xtreme Couture, where hard sparring and honest self-assessment are part of the program. For a champion who has reached the top of the middleweight division primarily through relentless pressure and volume striking, acknowledging a weakness on the mat takes a certain confidence — or at the very least, a complete indifference to public perception.