Long before Sean Strickland won over fans inside the Octagon, he had another tough fight on his hands: earning the approval of his future father-in-law.
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During an appearance on The Sean Ryan Show, the UFC middleweight champion confessed that his wife Kimberly‘s father was so cautious of him that he insisted on a prenup, claiming that it would keep ‘Tarzan’ away from the family fortune.
“She’s really put together,” he said. “She got two degrees; her dad is like in the go [expletive] yourself wealthy category.
“Like I had to sign a prenup, like the dad was like, ‘You’re not letting this [expletive] anywhere near my money.'”
Sean Strickland then recalled the awkward circumstances surrounding his first meeting with Kimberly’s parents, especially since he wasn’t at his best at the time.
“So, dude, I had monkeypox the first time I met him,” he continued on the interview. “So like meeting her parents was a big [expletive] thing for her.
“For me, I’m like, ‘Oh man, it’s weird to actually date a girl that has a dad.'”
Despite being sick, ‘Tarzan’ claimed the conversation with his future father-in-law quickly turned into a personal one when Kimberly’s father asked about his childhood and relationship with his own father.
And if you’ve been a fan of Sean Strickland for a while, it’s no secret that the reigning middleweight champion had a very traumatic past. ‘Tarzan’ has been very open about his experiences, openly sharing that he survived a severely abusive childhood caused by his alcoholic and violent father.
So, when the conversation moved towards his past, it was no surprise that it eventually overwhelmed him.
“I’m an emotional guy, just who I am,” he continued. “So, I start talking to her dad, and he starts like inquiring about my life, about my dad. I have this like massively high fever because of the monkeypox. So, I’m telling the story, and like I just started crying.
“Trying to keep my [expletive] together like a [expletive] breakdown. Not a breakdown. And it was just more of just like, ‘It’s my brother raised me, and [clears throat] I just need a sec, one sec.’ “
Although the first meeting was far from ideal, Sean Strickland’s relationship with Kimberly only grew stronger. The couple, who have supposedly been together since 2022, married last October after keeping much of their relationship out of the public eye.
Kimberly has since been a familiar face during UFC fight weeks, and ‘Tarzan’ has often credited her for helping him through the most demanding period of his career. Following his title victory over Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328, ‘Tarzan’ wasted no time confessing that the past six months leading up to the big fight had been equally exhausting for his wife as they had been for him.
“She’s been kind of a prisoner for the last six months,” he told UFC on Paramount. “So she deserves a break, I deserve a break, so I’ll take a little breather. Maybe we’ll bring her down to the White House card. My girl deserves a vacation.”
Sean Strickland also made the touching admission about how his wife Kimberly completely changed his perspective on life outside of the Octagon.
“I give the credit for my best success to her because she made me realize that I’m not just a UFC title holder for like my entire life,” he said. “When you have something to come back to, things that don’t matter, they matter far less, and things that do matter matter way more.”
The irony is that the man Kimberly’s father previously refused to trust with his family’s wealth has gone on to amass a sizable fortune of his own. During a livestream with Adin Ross last year, ‘Tarzan’ estimated his liquid net worth to be at $4 million, with plans to increase it to $8-10 million by the time he retires through investments, real estate, and his fighting career.
And while Sean Strickland appears to have settled into married life outside of the Octagon, his next trip inside the cage is still a big mystery for fight fans, with both Khazmat Chimaev and Nassourdine Imavov trying to be the next challenge for the middleweight kingpin.
