UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland never shies away from picking a fight, whether it’s inside the Octagon or outside it. His latest answer, however, came with a surprising name attached to it.

During a Q&A session with Rainbet in late August, Strickland was asked which celebrity he would choose to fight. The UFC champion didn’t hesitate before naming Elliott Page, who appears as the Greek soldier ‘Sinon’ in Christopher Nolan’s 2026 hit film The Odyssey.

“Elliott Page, dude, f—ing all day long,” Strickland said. “Oh, that’s an easy dub. I’ll beat the s—t out of him.”

While Page may seem like an unexpected choice, Strickland had in the past expressed his anger at the 39-year-old Canadian actor. In late June, Page shared videos of himself training in boxing on Instagram, prompting a response from the UFC middleweight champion who criticized the actor/activist for both his transition and boxing training.

That previous exchange provides some context for why Elliot Page was the name that came to Strickland’s mind when he was asked about a celebrity fight.

However, this isn’t the first time ‘Tarzan’ has wanted to throw hands with a famous person.

In 2024, Sean Strickland attended a Power Slap event in Las Vegas as one of Dana White’s guests. Unfortunately, he crossed paths with controversial rapper and celebrity Machine Gun Kelly during the event, who was engaged to Megan Fox at the time.

In a famous video clip, the two traded barbs, with Strickland repeatedly calling the Cleveland-based musician “weirdo” and “vampire” while making fun of his outfit. Later, ‘Tarzan’ clarified that he was ready to fight ‘MGK’, but Strickland’s girlfriend, now wife, stopped him from attacking the rapper.

“I go, and I meet the vampire. [Luke Trembath] introduces me to the vampire and I make fun of him,” Strickland recalled later. “I’m like, ‘Dude, what are you f—ing wearing? Like, what the f—k is going on here? How are you doing this?’ He looked at me and he didn’t laugh, and he didn’t giggle, but he looked at me like, ‘Why is this guy with no respect talking to me like this?’ He looked at me like I was less than human.

“I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to f—ing humble you right now.’ Then my girl got in the way and was like, ‘Chill the f—k out,’ and then I was escorted out.”

That wasn’t the first time a UFC fighter had targeted a celebrity for a potential fight, either. Before Sean Strickland, Colby Covington famously called out rapper 50 Cent following his loss to Kamaru Usman.

UFC fighter Colby Covington once wanted to fight 50 Cent

Following his brutal loss to Kamaru Usman at UFC 245, Colby Covington received plenty of criticism. The controversial welterweight had been involved in a heated buildup to the fight, but the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ ultimately stopped him in the final round after breaking his jaw.

50 Cent celebrated Colby Covington’s defeat afterward and called him a “racist piece of s—t.”

Covington responded in typical fashion, calling out the rapper for a sparring session and eventually proposing a celebrity boxing match.

“There’s one guy who got his jaw wired shut and it wasn’t me,” Covington told MMA Fighting. “It was 50 Cent. He’s a little b—h. I want to fight 50 Cent next. I think we should do a celebrity charity boxing match. I’ll put up $1 million of my dollars and it’s going to go straight to the troops. He’s a broke b—h so he probably doesn’t have a million dollars but he can go as one of his f—ing sponsors to put it up and we can do this.”

The matchup never materialized, and there is no indication that Strickland and Page will actually share a combat sports venue either.

For now, Sean Strickland’s answer remains just that: a hypothetical celebrity-fight pick. But given his history of confrontations outside the Octagon, the UFC champion clearly isn’t short of names when it comes to people he would be willing to fight.