UFC fighter Sean Strickland took to X during the World Cup final last night to rank a range of sports from most to least masculine, and it’s fair to say he isn’t the biggest fan of ‘soccer.’

Strickland, who is the current UFC middleweight champion, most recently fought Khamzat Chimaev. In the eagerly anticipated match-up, the American came out on top and ultimately reclaimed UFC gold.

Last night, he chose to watch the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain. It was the latter who came out on top via a 106th-minute winner by Ferran Torres. However, the dramatic climax didn’t seem to excite the UFC superstar.

World Cup Final Doesn’t Impress Sean Strickland

REUTERS/Hannah Mckay

By all accounts, it wasn’t the best 120 minutes of football, especially given the magnitude of the game. Spain took control from the off and never really allowed Argentina any chances in normal time. They eventually found their reward for all the possession as super-sub Torres found the back of the net.

It was far from the chaotic back-and-forth like the last World Cup final, though, it had its moments. The red card for Enzo Fernandez and Argentina’s late flurry of chances certainly stood out as the moments when the game sprang into life.

Overall, however, Strickland wasn’t entertained by the match.

Using social media, he gave his thoughts on the sport, saying: “Anyways soccer is real f****** gay… How are you a grown a** man faking being hit? Are there any soccer players out there? Do you feel no shame when you fake being injured?”

Sean Strickland’s Sport Rankings

Despite soccer not captivating Strickland, he didn’t rank it at the bottom of his list. In his opinion, swimming is the least masculine sport, with golf second, just before soccer in third. He then put tennis as the fourth least masculine, with lacrosse in fifth.

Baseball was next, and while it is higher than some of the others, he didn’t have many positive words to say about it as he added: “The sport sucks though.”

In terms of most masculine, he put MMA at the top, with kickboxing second and boxing in third. Wrestling was fourth, trailing all the other combat sports. Then in the middle there was rugby, ice hockey, and American football.

For some, it was a controversial list, with one reply saying: “If you played soccer for 90 mins you’ll understand this is a man’s sport.”

However, Strickland replied by saying: “Bro, they fake injuries.”

A WWE Superstar has celebrated their birthday by breaking the internet, posing nude with two title belts.

In a sport where making noise is a massive part of the job, the post will have done them no harm as they look to continue in their quest to become “the best Superstar in the history of WWE.”

Celebrating her 28th birthday, Lola Vice took to social media to post a picture of her lying on a bed, covered only by two titles: the NXT Women’s Championship and AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship.

Since making her in-ring debut back in November 2022, Vice has grown in popularity and signalled her intention to become “the best Superstar in the history of the WWE.”

In February 2026, she won the AAA World Mixed Tag Team title alongside Mr. Iguana. The pair defeated Ethan Page and La Hiedra. Vice then won the NXT Women’s Championship when emerging victorious from a triple threat match against Jacy Jayne and Kendal Grey at NXT Stand & Deliver in April 2026.

Grey got revenge, however, 85 days later at NXT The Great American Bash: Orlando, though, that did not stop Vice from posing with the belt to celebrate her birthday.

Lola Vice’s Instagram page.

At the time of writing, the post has amassed more than half a million views, 1.5k reposts, and nearly 40k likes.

Fellow WWE Superstars Have Posted Similar

Less than a month ago, WWE Tag Team champion Montez Ford went viral for posing with the belt – and only the belt – in a video call screenshot with his wife posted to his social media.

Mandy Rose, CM Punk, and Logan Paul, as well as Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch, are others to have adopted similar poses.

Who is Lola Vice?

Vice’s real name is Valerie Loureda, and she became the first Cuban-American woman to sign a contract with WWE, as well as the first Cuban-American wrestler to win a title in WWE too.

Loureda grew up in Miami and was the daughter of a Taekwondo master. As a 5th Dan black belt herself, Loureda was part of the US Olympic Taekwondo team before becoming a fighter in MMA.

Loureda had a 4-1 record, all fights taking place under the Bellator banner. She won her debut at Bellator 216 against Colby Fletcher by TKO. Her last fight was a split decision triumph against Taylor Turner at Bellator 271.

Heading into WrestleMania 38 weekend, she attended a three-day-long WWE tryout in March 2022. This led to her being signed by WWE the following August and adopting the ring name of Lola Vice.

The World Cup is the ultimate prize in football. An international tournament held every four years pits the best countries from each corner of the globe against one another in front of unprecedented audiences. Billions of people across the planet have engaged with the 2026 World Cup tournament, with the expanded 48-team competition being the biggest edition in history.

Established almost a century ago when the world was a lot smaller, the competition has kept pace with the unrelenting march of time. More than 200 national teams from six continents started the qualification process for the 2026 World Cup, fighting to be one of the 48 teams in the largest ever iteration of the global spectacle. The entire cross-section of humanity may be involved, but only eight nations have ever won the World Cup. Here is the golden list of victors.

8

England

1966

As the accepted inventors of organised football, England should have been all over the formation of the World Cup in 1930. However the arrogance and thinly veiled xenophobia of the Football Association barred the national team from entering the competition until after the Second World War. When England finally graced the tournament with their presence in 1950, the Three Lions were beaten by a USA team full of amateurs.

Sir Alf Ramsey was installed as the country’s first manager with full control over squad selection in 1963, establishing a cutting-edge system without any recognised wingers and picking the players it suited – rather than shoehorning all the stars of the day into one dysfunctional team. England had home advantage at the 1966 World Cup, playing every game in front of a heaving Wembley Stadium.

West Germany forced extra-time with a goal in the 89th minute of the final, prompting Ramsey to deliver an immortal line to his team: “You’ve won it once. Now you’ll have to go out there and win it again.” Geoff Hurst completed his hat-trick to deliver England’s crowning glory. The nation has been plagued by penalty shootout heartache over the subsequent editions of the World Cup, reaching three semi-finals in 1990, 2018 and 2026 only to endure the familiar sensation of glorious failure.

7

Spain

2010, 2026

REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

For much of their footballing existence, Spain were always the nearly-men of international football. La Roja had never reached a World Cup semi-final before a golden generation rose to the fore. Between 2008 and 2012, Spain completed an unprecedented hat-trick of major international tournaments, winning back-to-back European Championships on either side of the 2010 World Cup.

Boasting a core of Barcelona and Real Madrid players at a time when La Liga was the world’s best league, the amiable Vincente del Bosque preached an obsession with possession known as tiki-taka. Spain had the cutting edge of David Villa and Fernando Torres up front but were chiefly a defensive team.

The European outfit won all four knockout games in South Africa by the same 1-0 scoreline. Spanish midfielder Juan Mata explained the attritional impact of hanging onto the ball: “They run and run for very little of the ball. That wears them down bit by bit.” It was death by a thousand passes.

They repeated the feat in 2026 under Luis de la Fuente with an impressive display across a tournament that was held in North America, which culminated in a victory over Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the final. The Class of 2026 drew comparisons to the 2010 winners, as Rodri, Pau Cubarsi and Unai Simon swept the board with individual awards.

6

Uruguay

1930, 1950

Uruguay are the World Cup’s ultimate over-achievers. A tiny slip of land sandwiched between South American behemoths Argentina and Brazil, the invariably scrappy outfit had a population of less than three million people to choose from when they hosted and won the inaugural World Cup in 1930.

Almost every iteration of Uruguay’s national team has embodied ‘garra’, a word which translates to ‘claw’ and represents an intangible quality of toughness. They could play as well. Uruguay won the last two gold medals in Olympic football before the formation of the World Cup, defeating fierce rivals Argentina with a style that was lauded as “chess with a ball”.

Uruguay refused to enter the following two World Cups held in Europe, returning in 1950 to sensationally defeat host nation Brazil. No more stars have been stitched onto the sky blue jerseys but the small nation remains disproportionately competitive. It’s in their blood. As the former national team manager Ondino Viera rightly said: “Other countries have their history. Uruguay has its football.”

5

France

1998, 2018

There is a common thread running through France’s two World Cup triumphs: Didier Deschamps. The industrious central midfielder was captain of the side that won the home tournament in 1998, capturing the hearts and minds of a nation with a multicultural squad which reflected French society. Two decades later, Deschamps became just the third individual to win the World Cup as a player and manager, leading Les Bleus to glory in Russia.

France may have boasted Kylian Mbappe‘s jet-heeled brilliance and the spell-binding cunning of Antoine Griezmann, but their recent success has been underpinned by functionality rather than flair. They are unquestionably a team in the image of Deschamps, who was labelled a “water carrier” by Eric Cantona during his playing days.

Deschamps’ side almost became just the third nation to ever win back-to-back World Cups. France reached the final in Qatar but lost out in a penalty shootout to Argentina – just as they had when facing Italy in 2006.

4

Argentina

1978, 1986, 2022

There are two established schools of management in Argentina – menottismo and bilardismo – named after the wildly contrasting figures that oversaw the nation’s first pair of World Cup triumphs. Cesar Luis Menotti was a rakish idealist, preaching the importance of style above substance in between puffs of a perennially lit cigarette.

Argentina won the 1978 World Cup on home soil under Menotti, but the tournament was tarnished by the murderous military regime that had control of the country at the time. Eight years later, Carlos Bilardo had assumed control. The pantomime villain of a ruthless – and successful – Estudiantes side lived by the mantra: “Being second is a failure.”

Being able to call upon a player with the generational talent of Diego Maradona certainly helped Bilardo’s win in Mexico. But as Lionel Messi can attest, having the best player in the world does not automatically lead to World Cup glory. Maradona and Messi both narrowly lost in the finals to Germany before the modern-day icon followed in the footsteps of his predecessor with victory in Qatar in 2022.

Messi almost inspired Argentina to famous back-to-back World Cup triumphs when his virtuoso displays helped spur the Albiceleste to the final in 2026, but a disappointing display which saw them register no shots on target ensured that they came up second best against Spain.

3

Italy

1934, 1938, 1982, 2006

Italy’s first two World Cup tournaments were conducted under the dark cloud of Benito Mussolini’s fascism and – in an entirely unrelated turn of events – both ended in triumph. While controversy is rife surrounding Italy’s success in 1934 on home soil, Vittorio Pozzo’s well-drilled outfit deservedly retained their title four years later in France.

Star striker Giuseppe Meazza wept at the final whistle in Paris but the most iconic tears of any Italian are those of Marco Tardelli. The tireless midfielder celebrated Italy’s second goal in the 1982 final against West Germany with an instantly iconic wail of jubilation. Paolo Rossi had opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the tournament, emphatically justifying his selection after serving a two-year ban for betting allegations.

Controversy seems to fuel Italy. The domestic league was reeling from a huge match-fixing scandal when the 2006 World Cup kicked off. Five members of Marcello Lippi’s squad were on the books of a Juventus side that had been relegated as a result of the revelations. A wily and experienced squad was unfazed, scheming a way to the final which they edged against France via a penalty shootout.

2

Germany

1954, 1974, 1990, 2014

Consecutive group-stage exits for Germany in 2018 and 2022 clash violently with the historic image of a nation that treats reaching the semi-finals of a World Cup as an obligation. The European giants won their first crown in 1954, overturning a two-goal deficit in the final to topple a legendary Hungarian side that had already defeated them 8-3 in the group stage.

Germany were repeatedly framed as efficient dream-crushers. Johan Cruyff’s revered Netherlands side were undone by Gerd Muller’s ruthless edge in 1974. Four decades later, Joachim Low’s team eviscerated hosts Brazil with a 7-1 semi-final humbling before thwarting Lionel Messi’s dreams of winning a maiden World Cup. The 1990 tournament was an underwhelming affair for all involved, but the accepted wisdom of Germany’s remorseless triumphs overlooks the quality coursing through each of their title-winning teams.

1

Brazil

1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002

Brazil’s domination of the World Cup began with a chastening defeat. The nation went into mourning after Uruguay prevailed in front of a packed Maracana in 1950. One contemporary report labelled Brazil’s defeat “our Hiroshima”. A young Pele saw his father burst into tears watching the match, pledging there and then to win the country’s first World Cup. He would end his career with three, forever ranking as one of the greatest players of all time.

Pele was 17 when he spearheaded Brazil’s carefully planned triumph in 1958. Hell-bent on avoiding another humiliation, the nation’s FA took a doctor, dentist, treasurer and psychologist to Sweden. Pele had matured into a creative hub by 1970, pulling the strings of a legendary outfit that won the first World Cup beamed across the world on colour television. In between, the chaotic dribbling of Garrincha propelled Brazil to glory after Pele’s early injury in 1962.

A grim, goalless final won via a penalty shootout captured the combative approach of Brazil’s 1994 champions, who were criticised even in victory. Luiz Felipe Scolari was hardly one of the game’s grand philosophers but unshackled a star-studded front line comprised of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho to earn glory in 2002.