Strickland crashes at 60mph without a helmet days after shoulder injury delay

UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland sustained head and shoulder scrapes in a 60mph motorcycle crash, posting video footage of his injuries on Instagram and admitting he had not been wearing a helmet.

Strickland said the accident occurred when he handed control of the motorcycle to his friend Chris, who lost control and sent the pair rolling approximately six times across concrete and dirt. “I let my buddy drive, he rolled us going, like 60,” Strickland said in the clip. “That was from my head smacking the ground, going 60, did not have a helmet on. I’m an idiot.”

In a follow-up post, Strickland said he believed he would recover but revealed his passenger had been taken to hospital after briefly losing consciousness. “Chris went unconscious for a little bit, so he’s in the hospital, but I think he’s going to be alright,” he said. “He just went asleep for a little bit.”

Despite the severity of the incident, Strickland appeared to treat it with characteristic levity, calling it “the most fun thing I’ve done in a very long time” and joking that his wallet had taken the worst of it.

The crash comes at a particularly awkward time for the champion, who is already dealing with shoulder injuries that have pushed back his next title defence. He had recently shared a separate clip of himself falling from a motorcycle, though on that occasion he was wearing full protective gear.

Strickland’s history with motorcycles is well documented. A crash in December 2018 — far more serious than this latest incident — kept him out of competition for nearly two years. He was a welterweight at the time; he returned at middleweight, climbed to the top of the division, and is now in his second reign as champion.

There is no official word yet on how the latest injuries might affect his timeline for a title defence.