Sean Strickland reveals severity of gruesome injury that Joe Rogan noticed before UFC 328

Sean Strickland has revealed just how badly he was injured in the days leading up to his historic world title victory on Saturday.

Despite being a former champion with wins over almost everyone in the top ten at middleweight, Strickland was a massive underdog to end Khamzat Chimaev’s unbeaten run at UFC 328. However, he came through to do just that with a split decision that saw him win 3-2 on most viewers’ scorecards.

After the fact, he revealed that an ill-advised fight week sparring session with PFL star Johnny Eblen saw him suffer a terrible shoulder injury. Joe Rogan even noticed it during the pre-fight, telling fans on his podcast after the fact that he could tell the outspoken Californian was ‘compromised’.

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Sean Strickland tells fans of horror UFC 328 injury

Somehow, Sean Strickland managed to not just fight through the gruesome shoulder problem, but managed to pull off one of the great middleweight results of recent memory. And after consulting with doctors, he has taken to social media to reveal just how badly he hurt himself.

Writing on X, Strickland declared that his injury was a combination of three: “Type 2 AC separation. Extended Type V SLAP tear. Partial rotator cuff tearing/tendinosis.” He then joked that he is “Gonna have to walk this one off…”

Joe Rogan spoke about the injury on his podcast this week, telling Brendan Schaub that he could see something was up from his cageside commentary position. “Sean had one arm,” Rogan said, adding that he noticed a strange movement in Strickland’s arm at the start of the fight.

“I was like ‘oh that’s what I do with my shoulder when I’m hurt’, because you want to see how hurt it is,” the commentator and former fighter explained. “How does it feel? Feel the range. He was only going to here [gesturing to around halfway up the average range of movement].”