While most people in the fight business don’t mince their words, UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland takes that to an entirely new level.
Strickland won the Middleweight belt back in September with one of the biggest upsets in the promotion’s history, scoring a Unanimous Decision victory over the heavily favored Israel Adesanya (some books had Izzy as a 7/1 favorite), who had successfully defended the strap 7 times previously and who many believe to be one of, if not the, greatest ever 185 pounders.
Before attaining the championship, Strickland made himself a fan favorite by not censoring his words and opinions in the slightest, which is certainly a rarity in this day and age. He was open about his abusive childhood, escaping neo-Nazi views his father instilled in him, and overcoming the poverty and violence he grew up around, while also speaking his mind on whatever the cultural issue of the moment happened to be.
Even with the championship belt around his waist, he still doesn’t pull his punches (figuratively and literally) and recently weighed in on the UFC’s decision to take on Bud Light as their official beer sponsor.
Announced just last week, the brand that has gone through the fire after using Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, to promote their product, inked a deal reportedly worth $100 million over 6 years to replace Modelo as the UFC’s official beer sponsor.
Bud Light has been hard at work trying to fix their reputation, including multiple ads with country stars and athletes like Travis Kelce and Dak Prescott, but this latest investment is their biggest bet yet to right the ship.
Naturally, Sean Strickland weighed in on this, starting with a series of posts on X and responses to fan’s replies.
Keep in mind, this is Sean Strickland so there’s going to be some non-PC language to say the least.
He then doubled down in a video posted to his Instagram stories, where he applauded Bud Light for starting to do the right thing and again saying that he’d be willing to partake in the righting of the ship.
“So guys I’m on my way to training and I just found out Bud Light is a new sponsor. And Goddamn I applaud you guys. I’m so f*cking proud of you guys for doing the right things after that f*ck up.
You know how I feel about transgenders, I go f*cking hard, just what I do. I am the biggest advocate of biological females. If I said my views on transgenders, I’d be kicked off Instagram.
But I cannot f*cking wait to pick up a big old f*cking Bud Light can and fix you, Bud Light, because you guys are doing the right f*cking thing.
I, Sean Strickland, a representation of the American people, are going to fix you Bud Light. Thank you for giving me money, thank you for supporting my platform, I’m gonna help you guys.”
Obviously, it helps when a company starts filling up your bank account, but I do believe there’s something to be said about how Sean is handling this.
He was not a fan (to say the least) of the company when the whole firestorm came down a few months ago, but safe to say, he’s willing to give credit where it’s due and acknowledge that the company is trying to fix what he saw as a mistake and do what he can do to help out.
Honestly, I think the world needs a bit more of this type of behavior and less of the cancelling behavior, on both sides, and for whatever causes you do or don’t support.
But hey, I just type on a keyboard for a living, so who knows.
