UFC president Dana White denied that UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland was banned from the White House ahead of UFC Freedom 250.
The always-polarizing Strickland took to his social media last week and said that the UFC banned him from attending UFC Freedom 250, which takes place on June 14 at the White House in Washington, D.C., due to some controversial comments he made about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States President Donald Trump, among other things.
Not the case, says White.
Dana White Shoots Down Sean Strickland’s Claims
Speaking to reporters at a media scrum on Tuesday ahead of UFC Freedom 250, White vehemently denied that Strickland was banned from the White House.
“Everybody’s banned, apparently. Apparently, (expletive) everybody is banned. Of course Sean Strickland isn’t banned. Sean Strickland is banned from humanity, OK? We don’t want him near any human beings anywhere. (Expletive) shows up at Power Slap, he starts fights – and he made it very clear he didn’t want to be a part of this event, and now, apparently, (he’s saying) he’s banned,” White said (h/t MMAjunkie.com).
In addition to shooting down Strickland’s own remarks about being banned from the event, White also shot down the rumors that featherweight Diego Lopes would have to change his walkout music for his bout against Steve Garcia, which kicks off the card.
“Nobody is banned. Nobody’s music is banned. No media members have been banned. And the list goes on and on. … Literally nobody has been banned from this event. … There’s a lot of (expletive) floating around out there. Nobody’s banned. Nothing’s banned,” White said.
Well, there you have it, straight from the boss’s mouth in White. If anything, it’s just another example of how you can’t take everything that fighters say on social media at face value, especially someone like Strickland, who is always tweeting up a storm and saying outlandish things on his X and Instagram accounts.
UFC Freedom 250 Card
Here is the final UFC Freedom 250 card with the event just a few days away.
- Main event: UFC lightweight title unification bout – Ilia Topuria (C) vs. Justin Gaethje (IC)
- Co-main event: Interim UFC heavyweight title bout – Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane
- Bantamweight bout: Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi
- Heavyweight bout: Josh Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis
- Lightweight bout: Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler
- Middleweight bout: Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus
- Featherweight bout: Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia
Overall, it’s an absolutely stacked UFC card, and one that should blow the roof off the so-called “claw” on the White House lawn.
Not only are two of the UFC’s biggest superstars in Topuria and Pereira at the top of the billing, but you also have a former champ in O’Malley, an up-and-coming star in Hokit, a fan favorite in Lewis, and a true crowd-pleasing banger between Lopes and Garcia, amongst other fights.
On paper, UFC Freedom 250 truly has the potential to go down as one of the greatest mixed martial arts events of all time, so let’s hope the fights live up to the hype and the fighters give the fans the show that they want.
Dana White Denies Sean Strickland Banned From White House