Dana White Accuses Journalist of Baiting Sean Strickland with LGBTQ Question: ‘People Can Say Whatever They Want’
UFC CEO Dana White fully supports his fighters’ rights to free speech.
In recent years, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has seen a significant uptick in athletes taking things to unnecessarily personal levels to sell a fight. It’s not a new concept as fighters such as Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor have made quite the career for themselves by engaging in a series of over-the-top confrontations with their opponents.
However, former middleweight world champion Sean Strickland has seemingly taken things to an entirely new level with his often-hilarious, yet sometimes vile commentaries on certain subjects. In particular, his stance on the LGBTQ+ community and transgender individuals. Ahead of his UFC 297 title tilt with Dricus Du Plessis, Strickland was asked about his past comments disparaging the gay community by a Canadian journalist during a pre-fight media scrum.
As expected, Strickland went into total meltdown mode, lambasting the journalist in another homophobic rant that understandably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Speaking with members of the press following Saturday’s UFC 297 card at Scotiabank Arena, Dana White was asked about the freedom he gives his athletes to say whatever they want and whether or not he has ever considered asking fighters like Strickland to “tone it down.”
In his response, White specifically accused the Canadian journalist of baiting Sean Strickland.
“I don’t try to tell anybody to do anything,” White said. “I don’t try to control any other human being in any way, shape, or form. I say it all the time. We’re in the fight business. If you get your feelings hurt that bad, you probably should ask the type of questions where you know the answer you’re going to get from Strickland. Let’s start there. If you ask him… You know who he is, and if you ask him a certain question… He was baited in that question.
“I don’t give anybody a leash, a leash. Free speech, White continued. “control what people say and tell people what to believe. I don’t f*cking tell any other human being what to say, what to think, and no leashes aren’t any of them. That’s ridiculous to say I give somebody a leash. Free speech, brother. People can say whatever they want; they can believe whatever they want.”
Strickland came up short in his first middleweight title defense, dropping a closely contested split decision to Dricus Du Plessis. White revealed during the post-fight press conference that the promotion is not considering an immediate rematch between the two.
