UFC champ Sean Strickland unleashed an expletive-laced tirade against a reporter, Justin Trudeau and people in the LGBTQ2 community during a media event in Toronto.
Strickland, the current middleweight champion, is in Toronto in the run-up to Saturday’s UFC match at Scotiabank Arena. He’ll be facing off against South African MMA fighter Dricus du Plessis.
Videos of Strickland cussing out a reporter during a UFC press conference spread quickly on Wednesday, and Strickland himself reposted a video of the incident.
At one point during the interaction, the reporter notes that Toronto has a large LGBTQ2 community and asked Strickland to comment on a tweet he made in 2021, when the MMA fighter wrote: “If I had a gay son I would think I failed as a man to create such weakness.”
Strickland cut off the question and repeatedly asked if the journalist was gay.
“I’m an ally of the community,” the reporter responded.
Strickland asked if the reporter would be fine with having a gay son and never having grandchildren, to which the reporter replied, “No problem with it.”
“You’re a weak f—ing man, dude. You’re part of the f—ing problem. You elected Justin Trudeau when he seized the bank accounts. You’re just f—ing pathetic,” Strickland ranted.
Strickland appears to be referencing the use of the Emergencies Act during the Freedom Convoy protests that shut down downtown Ottawa. About $7.8 million in assets from around 200 accounts flagged by the RCMP were frozen due to their association with the illegal protest.
“The fact that you have no f—ing backbone as he shut down your f—ing country and seized bank accounts, and you ask me some stupid s–t like that? Go f–k yourself, move the f–k on, man.”
The reporter, who seemed unfazed by the tirade, went on to ask about comments Strickland made about Bud Light, the embattled beer maker that faced a conservative boycott after partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a sponsored Instagram post.
“Here’s the thing about Bud Light. Ten years ago, to be trans, was a mental f—ing illness. And now all of a sudden people like you have f—ing weaselled your way into the world. You are an infection. You are the definition of weakness. Everything that is wrong with the world is because of f—ing you,” Strickland said.
Being transgender is not a mental illness. While some medical authorities, for example the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), used to categorize gender dysphoria as such, the WHO states that “current knowledge” reflects the fact that “trans-related and gender diverse identities are not conditions of mental ill-health, and that classifying them as such can cause enormous stigma.”
“While the pathologizing of gender non-conformity has always been contested by trans communities and advocates, we now have groundbreaking research that is advancing our understanding of the mental health of trans people and demonstrating that difference is, in fact, not disease,” the Canadian Institutes of Health Research writes.
This is the not the first time Strickland has drummed up controversy. The UFC champ is known for launching into sexist and homophobic rants.
On Tuesday, just a day before the incident with the reporter, Strickland garnered headlines for threatening to stab his Saturday competitor du Plessis, over comments he made about Strickland’s abusive childhood.
“Like, if I go to Canada and you bring that up, well guess what?” he said on his podcast The Man Dance. “I’m going to go to jail, they’re going to deport me, and we spent eight weeks of training for no f—ing reason.”
Earlier in December, Strickland and du Plessis were in the audience of a UFC match in Las Vegas when Strickland leaped over seats and started pummelling him.
“The comments expressed are the opinion of an individual who does not have any affiliation with MLSE and do not reflect the values of the organization,” said Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to 640 Global News Radio Toronto, when asked for comment on Strickland’s remarks.
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