Sean Strickland makes heartfelt confession about Nina-Marie Daniele, fans react: "Friend zoned"

MMA fans have been reacting to Sean Strickland's latest post on social media, which has seen the middleweight star open up about his friendship with MMA interviewer Nina-Marie Daniele.

Strickland has often been credited with Daniele's rise in popularity, as the two struck up an unlikely friendship during her early days working for the promotion. Interviews between the pair often went viral, as Daniele demonstrated she was comfortable with Strickland, even if he was saying something controversial.

Recently, 'Tarzan' gave fans insight into his relationship with Daniele, after she shared a post on X asking people to say one nice thing about her. The former middleweight champ soon responded, stating that he expected to be friends with someone so "special." He wrote:

"I never thought I could be friends with someone who was autistic, even maybe a tad bit r*tarded.... You have really shown me that being special isn't a bad thing :,). You're very special @ninamdrama... very very very special."

Check out the post here:

Fans have since been reacting to Strickland's post, with one fan claiming his response is an attempt to break out of the friend zone. They wrote:

"Sean Strickland has been friend zoned but still trying to break out."

Others commented:

"Sean just said he learned to love himself a little bit. He’s healing."

"Without Nina drama you wouldn’t be nearly as popular it’s kinda wild to think about"

"We always knew sean had the hots for nina. Good to see him finally admit to the world."

"You guys should just get a room already"

Check out more reactions below:

More fan reactions

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Sean Strickland names what he both loves and hates about Japan

Sean Strickland has never been one to shy away from sharing his opinion on a topic, regardless of how controversial it may be. The former middleweight champ often takes to social media to share his views, with him most recently offering his take on the country of Japan.

According to 'Tarzan', whilst there are a number of great things about the country, including its rich cultural history, he believes there are a certain group of people who taint it. He wrote:

"You take a place like Japan. What makes Japan great is it's culturally the same. What makes Japan suck is you have some white liberal pink haired anime freak with her fat t*** and belly out wearing cat ears not understanding that everyone their hates them for their individualism."

Check out Sean Strickland's post below: