UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland delivered a verbal TKO to a Canadian reporter at a UFC 297 press conference Wednesday after the journalist made the ill-advised decision to bait Strickland into a “gotcha” question regarding gays.
The reporter began by bringing up Strickland’s 2021 comments when he said that if he had a “gay son I would think I failed as a man to create such weakness.”
The reporter said, “We’ve got a pretty supportive gay and lesbian community in this city (Toronto),” the reporter began. He then brought up Strickland’s hypothetical about having a gay son, but he didn’t get much further than that before Strickland cut him off.
Wearing a tee shirt reading, “A woman in every kitchen and a gun in every hand,” Strickland went off.
“Oh, look!” Strickland exclaimed, “the swamp!”
Idk who this guy is and I don’t care but you’re not a man… But you’d take that as a compliment….. pic.twitter.com/PMR1h4Yp7K
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) January 17, 2024
You elected Justin Trudeau … you’re just f*ck*ng pathetic,” Strickland said. “The fact that you have no f*ck*ng backbone and as he shut down your f*ck*ng country and seized bank accounts, you ask me some f*ck*ng stupid sh*t like that? Go f*ck yourself. Move the f*ck on, man. F*ck*ng coward.”
Undeterred, because LGBT issues were apparently the only thing on the reporter’s mind as he held an audience with a UFC champion, the Canadian continued by bringing up the transgender issue.
Specifically, he mentioned Strickland’s past social media posts regarding Bud Light’s failed partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney.
This goes 1 of 2 ways for me..
1. Budlight chick’s with dicks.
Or
2. We fucked up, we hired a radical leftist female who tried to ruin our country….. Here is Sean Strickland to remind us(budlight) we like our beer cold and our chick’s without dicks. MERICATime will tell…. https://t.co/fov1KRnVot
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) October 27, 2023
However, as before, the reporter didn’t get very far.
“Here’s the thing about Bud Light,” Strickland shot back. “Ten years ago, to be trans, was a mental f*ck*ng illness.”
Strickland referred to the reporter as a “disease” and “infection” before delivering a powerful finish.
“Everything that is wrong with the world is because of you,” Strickland told the reporter. “And the best thing is the world’s not buying your bullsh*t.”
Strickland then added that if anyone wanted to get a look at what the “f*ck*ng enemy” looked like, all they had to do was look at the Canadian “journalist.”
Sales for Bud Light declined well into 2023, making it one of the most costly and sustained boycotts in U.S. history. However, in a cruel and bizarre twist of fate, the production Strickland fights for, the UFC, decided to partner up with Bud Light in October.
Strickland will defend his middleweight crown against South African Dricus Du Plessis at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.