Sean Strickland has an opinion about the Bryce Mitchell controversy that has dominated recent MMA headlines because, of course he does.
Early in his session with reporters during Tuesday’s media day for his UFC 312 title rematch with Dricus Du Plessis on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+), Strickland took it upon himself to shift gears into the situation involving UFC featherweight Mitchell.
Mitchell sparked outrage this past week when he stated on the inaugural episode of his podcast that he felt Hitler was “a good guy” and someone he would go fishing with. It was all part of a tangent that prompted UFC CEO Dana White to make a public statement condemning the remarks and labeled Mitchell as “one of the dumbest humans.”
Shortly thereafter, Mitchell issued an apology on social media, but many felt it was insincere, and he’s continued to be the target of much negative feedback.
Strickland, who has spent time with Mitchell in the past and been the subject of many controversies for his own comments, said he thinks his fellow fighter is not a genuinely bad person. However, Strickland thinks Mitchell has been “radicalized” by certain world view points after going down a “rabbit hole,” and it manifested in the highly-publicized incident.
“I don’t think Bryce is a Nazi,” Strickland said at UFC 312 media day. “I think Bryce is a f*cking idiot from Arkansas who is not educated, and I think Bryce is just feeding into the propaganda. How many people actually agree with him? I don’t.
“Bryce, you’re a f*cking idiot. You should not have said that. But, he is being radicalized and a lot of people support him and he’s wrong. And we must also look at all the reasons why he said it and how he went down this path.”
Despite all that, Strickland (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who challenges Du Plessis (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) for the middleweight title after losing the belt by split decision in their first meeting at UFC 297 in January 2024, said he thinks Mitchell made a mistake with his apology statement.
“The thing that annoyed me about Bryce is he f*cking apologized,” Strickland said. “If you’re going to be a piece of sh*t, dude, you’ve got to just double down and be a piece of sh*t.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.
