By Alex Pattle
Sean Strickland stormed the cage at an MMA event on Sunday, striking a fighter who beat the UFC star鈥檚 teammate.
At a Tuff-N-Uff fight card in Las Vegas, Strickland鈥檚 teammate Miles Hunsinger suffered a second-round submission loss to Luis Hernandez, who won via standing guillotine choke.
Hernandez immediately celebrated by looking through the cage fence at Strickland and Chris Curtis 鈥 another UFC fighter and teammate of Strickland 鈥 and sticking out his tongue while gesturing to his crotch.
That led Strickland and Curtis to rush into the cage to confront Hernandez, with Strickland punching the 28-year-old twice.
Curtis in fact separated the pair, seemingly trying to prevent Strickland from striking Hernandez again. Yet when Hernandez appeared to goad Curtis at point-blank range, the latter seemed to offer some stern words before being dragged away by the referee.
All the while, the cage filled up with other officials and people trying to defuse the situation.
Later, the unbeaten Hernandez told journalist Ariel Helwani: 鈥淲e were in the fight, and they were talking in the fight. And listen, there鈥檚 only so much we can take.
鈥淭his is entertainment, right, [but] he said some things, and then I said some things back, and I guess he didn鈥檛 like what I said back.
鈥淗e was talking s***, saying I was tired, he was making fun of me, I think he called me fat. I don鈥檛 take that lightly.
鈥淢e? I said, 鈥楩*** you, Sean Strickland.鈥 Yeah, he punched me, he did [connect], but I鈥檓 still standing 鈥 still smiling.鈥
Strickland is one of the most divisive fighters in the UFC. The American, 34, pulled off an all-time MMA upset in 2023, when he outpointed Israel Adesanya to win the UFC middleweight title, though he lost it to Dricus Du Plessis in his first defence.
But he is equally known for his views on various political and social matters, having once claimed he wanted to kill an opponent in the cage. Strickland has also criticised women鈥檚 MMA, and insulted Australia before fighting there in February.
Strickland, who previously fought in Australia when he won the middleweight title, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really beautiful country. I would consider Australians as English white trash. Some Irish, too; you know they sent the lot here. As an American white trash, I feel like I have a lot in common with you f***ers.鈥
Referencing Australia鈥檚 introduction of gun laws, after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Strickland added: 鈥淵ou had one mass shooting and gave up all your guns, that was kind of pathetic.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the lack of freedom, dude. How insane is it that we鈥檙e in a modern country and hate speech is a thing? […] We鈥檙e in a modern country with running water, and you guys know: it鈥檚 real bad [鈥 real f***ing bad, dude.鈥
Strickland鈥檚 views were even featured on the front page of the Australian Daily Telegraph鈥檚sports section. The paper branded him the 鈥淯FC鈥檚 biggest imbecile鈥 and called for 鈥渟omeone [to] please knock this guy out鈥. In a strange move, the UFC shared the front page on its social-media accounts.