Sean Strickland made headlines outside of the MMA bubble prior to his main event title loss at UFC 297.
Strickland verbally attacked a reporter who asked about previous statements about the LGBTQ community. The now-former UFC middleweight champion’s homophobic tirade made news outside of the sport, raising questions about why the promotion, ESPN, and sponsors were OK with allowing his statements to go unchecked.
There was once a time when the UFC held its fighters accountable for the things they said on the microphone or wrote on social media. But a decade later, that stance has completely flipped, for better or worse.
