Sean Strickland is known for saying controversial things, including threatening to kill Dricus Du Plessis in the build-up to their fight at UFC 297 in Toronto a few years back.
He went down a similar path this week at a media scrum ahead of UFC 328, where he’ll face off against middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev.
The pair have previously sparred, with Strickland calling the current champ a “one trick pony.” However ahead of the fight, Chimaev said he’d anticipate Strickland running away if confronted prior to the bout.
Strickland has other plans. “All I’m going to do, I’m going to pull my gun and shoot him,” Strickland stated (h/t MMA Junkie).
He had a bit of a smile saying it, but Strickland then went on the kind of tirade that makes him a target both online and with his opponents.
“I’ll tell you what: That being said, if Chimaev were to come up to me as a gentleman and say, ‘Hey, you know what? You said some things. You insulted my wife. I actually love sheep, it’s crazy,’ then I would be like, ‘I love goats, dude. Goat tastes good.’ He loves goats. We have that in common. I just don’t f*ck them.” He’d go on to name-drop Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, who Chimaev has associated with, Strick added “if you were to come up to me like a man, say, ‘You know what, Sean? You said some things about my dad Kadyrov.’ I’m like, ‘Well, you know what, dude? You whored yourself out, not me.’ ‘I want to settle this.’ I would say, ‘Let’s settle this like a man.’ But if you come up to me with three f*cking goat-f*cker Chechens who don’t speak English, I’m going to pull my gun, and I’m going to shoot each and every one of you.”
It remains to be seen if Strickland will push Dana White past his infamously lax policy on what fighters can say promoting bouts for the UFC. White has been a staunch free-speech absolutist over the years, with minor exceptions, like when Matt Mitrione had his contract suspended for comments made about transgender fighter Fallon Fox.