UFC fighter Sean Strickland mostly become known more for his repugnant and regressive views than his stellar 30-7 record in the Octagon. And Dana White believes there's a reason for that.
Instead of answering to his fighter's comments last week during UFC Fight Night promo when he called out streaming partner Paramount+ for turning Halo's video game series "gay," along with several other hateful remarks. White did what he usually does — blamed the media.
Strickland's outbursts have reportedly hurt his ability to book fights of late. But White puts the onus more on the people asking the questions than the man choosing to answer them.
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Sean Strickland calls out NFL, Bad Bunny in homophobic rant
Speaking to reporters ahead of Sunday's TKO win over Anthony Hernandez in UFC's main event, Strickland ran through his tired list of racist, homophobic, xenophobic and any other type of phobic tropes you can think of at Wednesday's press conference — this time taking aim at Super Bowl halftime performer Bad Bunny and the NFL.
“Look at the NFL, dude. You had that — I don’t even want to say that fa—ots name … the halftime show guy, the Puerto Rican … that (expletive) (expletive) Strickland began. “It is so crazy that this is America now."
“Back in the day, dude, the NFL was the standard of being a (expletive) man, and now every (expletive) year the NFL, I think they all get together around a table and say, ‘You know what, guys? How do we (expletive) ruin this sport? How do we gay it up? How do we (expletive) ruin it?’" the 34-year-old middleweight continued. "Well I’ll tell you what, why don’t we bring a gay foreigner who doesn’t speak (expletive) English and have him perform?”
Dana White blames media for asking 'dumb (expletive)'
Instead of holding Strickland accountable for being a "real man" and having agency over his own decisions and actions though, White blamed the media for his fighter's vitriolic statements.
“It’s a nightmare,” White said, (via Jed I. Goodman). “You guys don’t help. Asking him dumb (expletive), you know? Ask dumb (expletive) you’re gonna get dumb (expletive). ‘What did you think of Bad Bunny? What did you think of the Super Bowl?’ Get the (expletive) out of here. You (expletive) kidding me? So, when you’re talking about what Strickland says, you guys like to push the buttons.”
White's response is a page directly out of the Donald Trump playbook (with whom he's very close). While Strickland, ironically, has decided to back out of this year's White House fight over the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files.
Go figure.