Alexandre Pantoja tells Sean Strickland: 'Shut your mouth'

UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja isn’t happy with some of the things former middleweight titleholder Sean Strickland has said about the lighter weight classes.  

“I don’t want to see two f**king little cats fight; I want to see lions,” Strickland said in the lead up to his UFC 297 title bout against Dricus Du Plessis.  Pantoja hasn’t forgotten Strickland’s January comments and responded to the former champion in a recent interview. 

“Every flyweight in the world before the UFC worked so hard,” Pantoja said during an interview with SHAK MMA.  “It’s crazy because people say that.  Don’t say that.  You want I to lose my money, I lose my job? That’s so crazy. Why?  Why you say that?” 

“I’m very mad when Strickland said that for women and flyweight guys. Shut your mouth. Respect my job,” Pantoja continued.  “I put food on my table with that. You crazy?  Every flyweight worked so hard for that, and that’s why everyone respects each other in the flyweights. 

“It’s hard (when) you see someone say bad things about us because we work hard. That’s a very hard division. We need to be training 100-percent (of the) time. It’s not just about one punch here. You need to be good in grappling, good cardio, good striking, good every time in every place.”

Pantoja puts his world title on the line in the UFC 301 main event on Saturday against tenth-ranked Steve Erceg in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  It will be Pantoja’s second title defense.