Strickland brands Din Thomas a 'shit coach' for retiring after Robertson's UFC 330 title loss

Sean Strickland launched a blunt public attack on veteran MMA coach Din Thomas on Monday, calling him a “shit coach” and a “fucking loser” after Thomas announced his retirement from corner work in the wake of Gillian Robertson’s defeat to strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern at UFC 330 on Saturday.

Thomas, a former fighter who has coached Robertson for years, sparked a social media backlash when he chose the immediate aftermath of Robertson’s five-round co-main event loss to reveal he was stepping away from cornering. Critics argued the timing amounted to abandoning a fighter at her lowest point.

Strickland, the reigning UFC middleweight champion, was characteristically unsparing in his verdict. “Din Thomas is a fucking c*nt,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’ve had my ass kicked in multiple weight classes through my career and won two titles. You’re a dickhead. It’s probably better you retire. You’re a shit coach. You only lose when you quit. Din sounds like you’re a fucking loser.”

In a follow-up reply, Strickland also defended Robertson directly. “He’s just a c*nt,” he wrote. “Girl goes out there and tries to do something and you put her down. Dickhead.”

Strickland’s criticism carries a degree of personal credibility. He began his career as a welterweight with an uneven record before moving up to middleweight, where he pulled off one of the UFC’s more memorable upsets by defeating Israel Adesanya for the title in 2023. He is currently in his second reign as middleweight champion after stopping the previously unbeaten Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328 in May.

Robertson had built a compelling case for her title shot, going 5-0 after dropping to 115 pounds, and was bidding to become Canada’s first UFC champion since Georges St-Pierre. Her loss to Dern ended that run, but the controversy that followed has centred less on the result than on Thomas’s decision to make his retirement announcement in its immediate shadow.