UFC fighter Sean Strickland goes viral for unhinged press conference

CONTENT WARNING: Middleweight fighter Sean Strickland has just delivered one of the most unhinged press conference performances in UFC history.

Sean Strickland is unhinged. Picture: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Fight fans are accustomed to pre-fight bluster and wild press conference antics, but this one from UFC middleweight Sean Strickland surely takes the cake.

The 32-year-old sat down for his standard pre-fight presser ahead of his headline bout with Abus Magomedov in Las Vegas this weekend, and proceeded to deliver an all-time bizarre performance.

At times unhinged, and at other times straight-up cringe-worthy, Strickland spouted off about race, women and the LGBTQI+ community in what was often just a vile stream of consciousness rant.

Some videos of his press conference on YouTube now have a content warning at the beginning.

Nothing was off-limits as Strickland even went in on members of the media in attendance.

It took him less than a minute to raise his past as a “white trash, Neo-Nazi, angry f***ing kid.”

Strickland was raised in an abusive household in California by an alcoholic father. He looked up to his grandfather, who instilled in a young Strickland a neo Nazi ideology.

The seventh ranked middleweight has spoken openly about escaping those elements of his childhood, but if his comments this week are anything to go by, he still has some work to do.

Strickland has a troubled past. Picture: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Here are some of the lowlights of Strickland’s 26 minute media session.

SEAN STRICKLAND ON WOMEN

“We need to go back to taking women out of the workforce,” he said. “Maybe that’s where we f***ed up, you guys.

“We let women vote, no offence.

“You let these women come into the workforce, now we make less money, you’ve got kids raising themselves on TikTok.

“We need to go back to 1942, or maybe 1958 after we f***ed up the Germans. We need to put women back in the kitchen. Only one man needs to be working.

“As a collective man group, we need to elect somebody who’s going to put women back in the kitchen, one man working, raise the wages and build a wall.”

At this point, Strickland was asked if he’d ever considered therapy. He responded by saying that therapy would probably make him want to “start killing everybody.”

Strickland is no stranger to controversial comments. Picture: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

STRICKLAND ON ISRAEL ADESANYA

Israel Adesanya fought many times in China, can speak the language and feels a deep connection with Chinese culture.

Strickland hates that.

“Izzy the true Chinese. Can you guys believe that s**t?” Strickland said. “This f***ing clown. This f***in’ loser, bro. They need to revoke his black card.

“I don’t even look at you as a black man. I look at you as a Chinese. This a**hole, bro. This is real talk.”

After a minute of this, Strickland was corrected on some of the finer details of the issue.

“Whatever the f**k it was, dude,” he said. “Either way. I don’t know these things.

“Revoke that man’s black card.”

Odd phases of my life...

0-14 angry white trash, racist kid

14-25 trying to erase that image of me as a kid...

30s Accepting that I'm white trash loser... pic.twitter.com/dSqC64y9X2

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) June 26, 2023

STRICKLAND ON GERMANY

Strickland said he was offered a fight with several ranked middleweights, who all turned him down. He didn’t want to reveal the names of those middleweights, but went after the entire country of Germany.

The tangent started when Strickland became confused because Magomedov was born in Dagestan, Russia but now trains in Germany.

“It makes me laugh, all these Germans, they lost their nuts after 1948 or 1950 or whenever that happened,” he said, presumably referencing the end of World War Two.

“All these Germans are on my Twitter posting their f***ing flag of every war they’ve ever f***in’ lost, you f***in’ weak f***s.

“You guys have never done anything impressive, the only thing you’ve ever done is lose.

“All these stupid Germans, after they gave away their country, bunch of losers. They’re posting German flags on my s**t.

“You motherf***ers understand this guy isn’t German. Are you representing Dagestan? Russia? What are you representing?

“This guy isn’t German. Shut up, you idiots.”

Strickland has had 19 fights in the UFC in the past nine years. Picture: Louis Grasse/PxImages/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

STRICKLAND ON IMMIGRATION AND RACE IN AMERICA

The fighter got into a back-and-forth with a Colombian journalist who was born in Miami.

“What you’re saying is you’re an American with Hispanic roots,” Strickland said. “And if you’re a Colombian, get your f***in’ ass back to Colombia.

“This is the problem with America, it makes me so mad, dude.

“You get this guy and ask him where he’s from, and he goes, ‘I’m Mexican’.

“No you’re not Mexican. You’re in America. You’re an American f***in’ citizen. If you don’t even know your nationality, get out of this f***in’ country.”

Originally published as UFC fighter Sean Strickland goes viral for unhinged press conference