Sean Strickland has pioneered being a shockjock during MMA press events. It all started when Strickland was matched with Uirah Hall a year ago.
During an interview prior to the event, the interviewer brought up Hall’s infamous ‘I’m sorry Adam’ moment that prompted the following exchange with Strickland:
“If I killed somebody in the ring, it’d f–king make me very happy,” Strickland said.
Strickland continued:
“Like, if Uriah hits me and maybe I have a brain aneurysm and die, you’ll hear me saying, ‘I’m OK, that’s a good death.’
“We’re all going to die sometime. You know, might as well end in a good way. … We’re all going to the same place, man. It’s either gonna be then or now. Just enjoy it.”
From there Strickland figured out he had the public’s attention and stepped it up revealing troubled youth on the Ariel Helwani’s show:
“To me, I was really f—ing angry. I was so angry. I actually went through this neo-nazi, white supremacist phase when I was younger. I got kicked out of school for a hate crime. All this crazy s— where I was so angry and I had f—ed up influences in my life. It felt so good to f—ing hate something. I would walk down a street just with a knife or like a rock hoping to kill somebody. ”
From there Strickland went on to shine a spotlight on grooming among female MMA fighters and to shine a spotlight on Pat Barry and Rose Namajunas’ problematic relationship.
But somewhere along the way Strickland started getting into political waters – notably with his criticism targetting trans MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin.
And sure enough his twitter was suspended just as his instagram finished out a suspension. This prompted fears in Strickland from getting blacklisted.
“I’ve got some bad f*cking news. The UFC wants me as part of the press conference. And I’m a little f*cking scared, and I’ll tell you why I’m scared. Because I’m not talking to you social degenerates on Instagram, I’m talking to the overlords. ESPN, f*cking Walt Disney man. You know, and if I f*ck up and if I say something wrong, I’m gonna get f*cking Gina Carano’d. And I don’t want that. So I really need to sit there, and just shut the f*ck up. I might even bring headphones, and just like – loud music the whole time. So, I’m a little nervous you guys. I need to do the right thing and just shut the f*ck up.”