UFC Star Goes on Wildly Hateful, Sexist Rant in Stunning Presser

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UFC star Sean Strickland sparked outrage Wednesday when he offered up some wildly hateful musings during a pre-fight press conference.

Strickland is set to take on middleweight Anthony Hernandez in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday. On Wednesday, the 34-year-old used his media availability to air a number of personal grievances.

The day before, it was announced that Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano would be returning to the octagon to headline Netflix’s first MMA event. While touching on that subject, Strickland went on an expletive-filled rant to rail against feminism and sexualize the fighters. He added:

Are they gonna be half naked? It might make it a little better… Ronda Rousey can fight. That bitch can fight. I think she lost a few fights to her ex, but bitch could fight. I like Gina, she’s like, super conservative. She was hot, you know. I was like a kid when she fought. I may have jerked off to her once or twice back in the day… I was like, what, like 12? I was jerking off when I was 12. Nobody gives a fuck. Maybe put some oil on it, you know. Do some dollar bills. People might give a fuck.

No one gives a fuck about women’s sports. You take the weakest, softest motherfucker here and you guys would beat up Amanda Nunes, like fucking the fat guy in the Hawaiian shirt, no offense here… And then there’s nothing wrong with women. I mean, they do great things. You know, they fucking– they cook, they clean… There are no women in prison, right? Like, that’s why I didn’t go to fucking prison, knowing I’m gonna have to go be surrounded by a bunch of fucking dudes for 30 years. I’m not doing that shit… Problem is we’ve, we’ve empowered them too much to ruin society.

Moments later, he took aim at the Super Bowl halftime show performed by Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny. Strickland called the artist a homophobic slur before launching into an anti-gay tirade. He continued:

You had that– I don’t even wanna say the f****t’s name because it’s just like– what, somebody give me his name! Say his name. I don’t wanna say it. You know who I’m talking about, the halftime guy, the halftime show guy, the Puerto Rican, right? Puerto Rican? Bro, yeah, that fucking f****t. Like, dude, it is so crazy that this is America now. Like, back in the day, dude, the NFL was the fucking standard of being a fucking man; and now every fucking year, the NFL, I think they all get together around a table and say, “You know, guys, how do we fucking ruin this sport? How do we gay it up? How do we fucking ruin it?”

Well, I’ll tell you what, why don’t we bring a gay foreigner who doesn’t speak fucking English and have him perform it? Like, get the fuck– and then you have like, yeah, dude, it’s like the NFL is fucking pathetic these days. Even the NFL players fucking probably hate it. Yeah, no. NFL’s gay. I think we’d all agree the NFL got real gay lately.

As many have noted online, the press conference was the first one to be broadcast exclusively on Paramount+. UFC President Dana White previously secured a deal with Paramount bringing fights to the streaming service, a seismic move in the combat sports world signaling the end of the pay-per-view model.

White has criticized UFC fighters’ rhetoric in the past, but he’s also made it clear that his fighters are free to say whatever they want, even if he may disagree with the message.

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