Even for a fighter as outspoken as Sean Strickland, there is such a thing as going too far.
The last 48 hours have delivered some of the most vile trash talk in UFC history. Welterweight title challenger Colby Covington kicked things off on Thursday, making a disgusting comment about Leon Edwards’ deceased father that was quickly condemned by practically everyone.
Unfortunately, that incident merely opened the floodgates for a series of personal attacks to go down at the UFC Seasonal Press Conference on Friday evening. Taking the stage, reigning middleweight world champion Sean Strickland had it out with both Sean O’Malley and the man he’s expected to defend his title against next month at UFC 297, Dricus Du Plessis.
‘Tarzan’ first directed his attention toward O’Malley, slamming the current bantamweight titleholder for “trying to let dudes f*ck his wife.” The comment was in reference to O’Malley’s open relationship with his wife, Danya Gonzalez.
O’Malley quickly snapped back, saying “At least my dad didn’t f*ck me,” a clear dig at Strickland’s history of being abused as a child.
Later on at the press event, Strickland found himself in a heated verbal confrontation with Dricus Du Plessis. Taking a page out of Sean O’Malley’s playbook, ‘Stillknocks’ went the personal route in his attack.
“You think your dad beat the sh*t out of you? Your dad doesn’t have sh*t on me,” Du Plessis said. “Every childhood memory you have is gonna come back when I’m in there with you.”
Sean Strickland Calls O’Malley and Du Plessis’ comments an ‘utter disgrace’
Strickland simply rolled with the punches in both instances but following the event, ‘Tarzan’ took to social media and delivered a surprisingly lengthy response, condemning the comments from O’Malley and Du Pless.
“I expect nothing less from O’Malley and Dricus,” Strickland wrote on X. “Next time come at me as a man… Clearly you don’t know what that means…… I just wanna say one thing that I feel needs to be said.. There are a lot of kids out there who have been abused and molested and it’s a damn tragic thing that forever changes you. How you function, how you view the world, how you treat relationships, how you handle addiction and for someone to put you down with that level of trauma on a world stage is an utter disgrace..
“I have a big following of people who suffered trauma, molestation and I will tell you that it’s not funny to me, whatever you’ve gone through or have been through isn’t funny to me…….. I hope you all understand that these are weak men who don’t understand hardship, they don’t understand what it’s like to live with demons… Forever a struggle they will never understand.”
It’s a surprisingly sensitive approach from Strickland, a guy who carelessly hurled homophobic slurs while being bullied over his abusive past.