UFC CEO Dana White explained the concept of free speech to a Canadian reporter who had an issue with MMA fighters speaking their minds.
UFC 297 was held at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Saturday, and a Canadian journalist was shocked that White allowed Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland to blast a colleague for trying to trap him into a soundbite with a “gotcha” question.
Following Strickland’s middleweight championship loss to Dricus Du Plessis on Saturday night, White said that the fighter was “baited” with the reporters question.
During a pre-fight presser on Wednesday, a reporter “baited” Strickland by bringing up a 2021 tweet where he posited having homosexual offspring.
🔥 Dana White Lights Up Woke Canadian Reporters Asking Him to Put a 'Leash' on His Fighters
"If you get your feelings hurt that bad you probably shouldn't ask the type of questions when you know the answer you're going to get from Strickland. Let's start there…A leash?…I… pic.twitter.com/02bsuDL3QF
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 21, 2024
“If I had a gay son I would think I failed as a man to create such weakness,” he wrote.
“If I had a wh*re for a daughter I’d think she just wanted to be like her dad lol!”
Before the reporter could get the question out, Strickland asked him if he was a gay man.
When the journalist replied that he was an ally of the LGBTQ community, the MMA fighter asked the man if he had a son and the child turned out to be, if he “wouldn’t want a grandkid.”
When the reporter said that he would have “no problem with it,” Strickland called him a “weak f**king man.”
“You’re part of the f***ing problem,” he told the Canadian. “You elected Justin Trudeau. When he seized the bank accounts, like you’re just f***ing pathetic.”
Idk who this guy is and I don't care but you're not a man… But you'd take that as a compliment….. pic.twitter.com/PMR1h4Yp7K
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) January 17, 2024
“The fact that you have no f***ing backbone and as he shut down your f***ing country and seized bank accounts, you ask me some stupid s**t like that,” Strickland insulted. “Go f*** yourself. Move the f*** on man.”
The reporter followed up his question by asking the fighter if he would use his platform to continue to bash Bud Light and promote transphobia.
“Here’s the thing about Bud Light, ten years ago to be trans was a mental illness, and all the sudden people like you have f**king weaseled your way into the world,” he responded.
“You are an infection, you are the definition of weakness,” he continued. “Everything that is wrong with the world is because of f**king you.”
Strickland said that the best part was that the “world’s not buying the bulls**t” the reporter is pedaling.
He noted that in the face of wokeism, people still believe that “there are two genders,” and don’t want their children being taught about gender ideology in school.
On Saturday, a different Canadian reporter attempted to grill White about why he didn’t tell the people that fight for him to “turn down the trash talk.”
“I don’t try to control any other human being in any way, shape, or form,” the CEO remarked.
White pointed out that if reporters get their “feelings hurt that bad,” they “probably shouldn’t ask the type of questions” that Strickland is going to answer in a way that offends them.
“You obviously give a long leash to your fighters about, you know, what they can say when they are up there with a UFC microphone, and you are getting into territory of, homophobia, transphobia… Is there,” the reporter began to ask before White shut the question down.
“I don’t give anybody a leash. A leash? Free speech,” White began. “Control what people say? Going to tell people what to believe?”
“Going to tell people…I don’t f***ing tell any other human being what to say, what to think,” he continued. “And there’s no leashes on any of them.”
White asked what the reporter’s actual question was, but the man demurred and said he’d move on.
“That’s ridiculous to say I give somebody a leash. Free speech, brother,” White continued.
“People can say whatever they want and they can believe whatever they want.”
He pointed out that two of the event’s co-headliners, Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva are gay.
“They sat on the stage with Sean Strickland,” he concluded. “They could give a s**t what Sean Strickland thinks, or what he says, or what his beliefs are, or what his opinions are.”