Controversial MMA fighter Sean Strickland inserted himself back in the news cycle on Wednesday with an expletive-laden tirade on Bad Bunny, the NFL, Puerto Ricans, gay hockey, and more at a pre-fight press conference in Houston. He made his inflammatory comments while promoting his upcoming Saturday UFC bout with 4th-ranked middleweight fighter Anthony Hernandez — which was pretty much the point.

The former Middleweight UFC champion and current #3 — who has taken a lot of hits to the head in his nearly two decades in the Octagon — made his comments during his 20-minute press event.

Related

UFC fighter who made repeated anti-LGBTQ+ comments suspended after assault

“Look at the NFL, dude. You had that — I don’t even want to say that fa**ot’s name. The halftime show guy, the Puerto Rican… that f***ing fa**ot,” Strickland said of Puerto Rican-American singer Bad Bunny, before asking reporters to provide his name. “It is so crazy that this is America now,” he said, according to Outsports.

“Back in the day, dude, the NFL was the standard of being a f**king man, and now every f**king year the NFL, I think they all get together around a table and say, ‘You know what, guys? How do we f**king ruin this sport? How do we gay it up? How do we f**king ruin it?’ Well, I’ll tell you what, why don’t we bring a gay foreigner who doesn’t speak f**king English and have him perform?”

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Bad Bunny speaks, understands, and is learning English, though he performs in Spanish.

The media circus seemingly loved Strickland’s comments, goading him like a circus bear with queer targets to bat at with his claws.

When asked about Heated Rivalry, the wildly popular gay hockey TV series, Strickland defended ice hockey as “a real man’s sport.” Any hockey player who comes out as gay would get “real f**ked up” by his teammates in the locker room, Strickland assured the press. He may not realize that out gay hockey players have professionally competed for years without being assaulted by their teammates.

Strickland slammed the UFC’s broadcasting partner, Paramount+, over gay characters in its adaptation of the video game Halo, while managing to insult trans women and describe gayness as a mental illness.

In the same vein, Strickland assured his audience that “no one gives a f**k about women’s sports,” claiming “the weakest, softest motherf**ker here would beat up Amanda Nunes,” the gay Brazilian-American MMA fighter and three-time UFC champion. UFC’s women’s matches are among the most widely viewed sporting events on ESPN.

Strickland has a history of similar screeds that keep him in the news. At a January 2024 press conference, the fighter went viral when he said that having a gay son would make him a failure as a man for having created “such weakness,” he said.

The expletive-laden colloquy that followed was rife enough with right-wing tags to make it to Jesse Watters’ primetime Fox show — with none other than future Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth weighing in.

“[The press wants] to find a wedge to get at these athletes who are smarter than them and faster than them and bigger than them and have hotter girlfriends than they do,” Hegseth said. “And so they’re angry about it, so they try to ask gotcha questions, and throw them under the bus.”

In the end, Strickland’s Wednesday press commotion accomplished its mission — every story covering his provocative comments included the day and date of his upcoming fight.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.