For the second time in a row, Sydney Australia is getting a Sean Strickland main event. And it seems like some people down under are quite sick of him.
Strickland beat Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 back in September 2023, the first UFC event in Sydney since 2017. Now they’re back two years later, and Strickland will again be at the top of the card as he attempts to win back his middleweight belt from Dricus Du Plessis.
The first time around, Strickland almost got deported from the country on fight week after punching a fan. This time the New South Wales government — which is paying the UFC big bucks to come — had to be convinced that Strickland was an appropriate headliner for their return. They probably didn’t want all of Strickland’s offensive and fringe-political quotes to be collected into one big headline and splashed on the front page of newspapers.
Welp.
Strickland was featured in a near full-page spread on the back cover of Thursday’s Daily Telegraph. The headline read: “UFC’s BIGGEST IMBECILE! In Sydney yesterday, UFC fighter Sean Strickland SAID AUSSIES ARE ‘ENGLISH WHITE TRASH,’ CALLED OUR GUN LAWS ‘PATHETIC,’ WENT ON A RACIST TIRADE, AND DARED OUR GOVERNMENT TO BAN HIM.”
“Will someone please KNOCK THIS GUY OUT!”
That’s exactly the kind of reaction the UFC wants — not demands that the government stop paying to import American hate speech, but demands that everyone tune in to watch an asshole potentially get knocked out. It’s how UFC CEO Dana White suggested we take Bryce Mitchell’s recent praise of Hitler and support for Jews and queers being targeted. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the promotion is actively sharing the Daily Telegraph cover on its socials.
American UFC star Sean Strickland slams Daily Telegraph
“I come to this f***ing country and I talk about freedom of speech, guns and taxes and you got these f***ing communists in the media trying to f***ing put me down”
He’s a legend pic.twitter.com/h5Nlx0qGTn
— Clown Down Under (@clowndownunder) February 6, 2025
Sean Strickland got the chance to respond to the story during the UFC 312 pre-fight press conference.
“Bunch of communists here, guys,” he said. “I come to this country and I talk about freedom of speech, guns and taxes and you guys got these f—ing communists in the media trying to f—ing put me down.”
He’ll have to hope there aren’t a bunch of communists judging his title fight against Dricus Du Plessis. After losing their last showdown in Toronto, Canada, “Tarzan” blamed leftist judges for skewing the scorecards in his opponent’s favor.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
