Joshua Van backs Dana White as Strickland pay feud leaves champion 'in a bad spot'

UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van has weighed in on the escalating pay dispute between middleweight champion Sean Strickland and UFC president Dana White, firmly backing the promotion and suggesting Strickland mishandled the situation by going public.

Strickland has been vocal about feeling underpaid ahead of a planned title defence against Nassourdine Imavov, threatening to vacate the middleweight belt and burn through the remainder of his contract at a different weight class to reach free agency. White pushed back, pointing out that Strickland had signed a new deal as recently as May — before his title win over Khamzat Chimaev — making the public complaints difficult to justify.

Van, 25, told the Outta Pocket podcast that the whole episode could have been avoided with a private conversation. “He just signed a contract in May and fought Khamzat, and then he won,” Van said. “Instead of going on Twitter and going on all that [expletive], he should have talked to Dana and said, ‘I wanna renegotiate.’ Behind closed doors. Then the boss would have been like, ‘OK, let’s talk about this, what you want?’ You just beat the boogeyman. Now it’s a whole mess.”

Van drew a blunt analogy to illustrate his point. “If you work at a 9-to-5 job and you go off to your boss and you’re like, pay me this much — like, what the [expletive]? So he’s in a bad spot right now. He’s still under the contract. I don’t know how that’s gonna work.”

The flyweight champion was careful to separate his sympathy for fighters wanting higher pay from his own situation. Van recently retained his 125-pound title with a decision over Alexandre Pantoja — his third championship bout victory in just ten months, a run that also included a fifth-round TKO over Tatsuro Taira on the Chimaev vs. Strickland card.

“I’m getting paid good,” Van said with a laugh. “I think they pay me a good amount. Should fighters get paid more? Yes, but I’m happy where I’m at. The UFC literally made me where I’m at, gave me everything I’ve got right now. I can’t really say for the other guy.”

Van began his professional MMA career when Strickland already had 14 UFC appearances to his name, giving the younger champion a notably different perspective on the promotion’s role in building a fighter’s profile and earning power.