Sean Strickland warned that his days of title fights may be over after difficult UFC 312 defeat

Sean Strickland has been warned by a former world champion that his days atop the UFC may be numbered after another poor performance.

The former middleweight champion had his nose broken by Dricus Du Plessis last night in the main event of UFC 312 after a year of building a rematch with the South African. He lost every round on all but one scorecard, which awarded him a point, and now faces an uphill battle back to title contention.

While Strickland is a fan favorite, his fight style is particularly defensive and slow-paced, which makes for difficult fights to watch for the neutral and the pay-per-view buyer. Coupled with his outlandish antics in the media, he has made himself a difficult figure to support for the UFC brass.

• Who is Sean Strickland? Get to know the controversial former UFC Middleweight champion

Sean Strickland warned UFC 312 showing may mark the end of his top level career

The entire presentation that Sean Strickland offers, from his wacky character to his press conference appearances, has made him one of the most fascinating figures in MMA. However, he doesn’t tend to back that up with ‘wars’ in the octagon, and tends to fight a conservative and defensive style.

And former Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson believes that the whole package may make his path back to a shot at the belt very difficult, particularly at this point in his career. Speaking on the Weighing In podcast, Thomson said: “You’re not getting another title shot for a long time.

“Not with the things that come out of your mouth, the things that you’ve said. All that build-up, it doesn’t work any more now if you’re going to just fight like that.

“It’s done, now you’re going to be at the back of the line in this division. And it might be a while, it’ll be years, two-and-a-half, maybe even three years if he ever does get back.”

Dana White joked that he is not keen on Sean Strickland headlining pay-per-view events

Strickland’s pre-fight antics have made him popular with the core UFC audience, but mainstream news and even political figures are not so keen. His second headliner in Australia on a card that was funded by tourism board budgeting proved controversial in New South Wales, with many calling for him to lose.

However, Dana White insists that it isn’t so much the local government who want Strickland out of the main event scene. In fact, he joked at the post-fight press conference, if anyone says ‘not Strickland’, before booking a major pay-per-view headliner, it’s White himself.

“I do that,” he joked when a media member asked if the government ever quietly try to influence against a Strickland main event. “Are you kidding me? I do that! Everyone knows my stance on this, we’re going to take guys and girls that say and do a lot of things.

“I’m a big believer in free speech and it probably seems worse when you come here because your media are such weak human beings. I thought we had weak media, you guys win hands down.”

• Who is Dana White? All you need to know about the CEO and President of the UFC