UFC president Dana White blasts Canadian reporter over Sean Strickland's 'transphobic comments'

In a post-fight press conference Saturday evening, UFC president Dana White left a reporter speechless when he defended middleweight fighter Sean Strickland’s right to say and believe.  

Responding to a reporter who began his question by noting that the UFC head gives his fighters "a long leash" when discussing issues behind a UFC microphone, White said, "I don't give anybody a leash. 

"A leash?" White asked. "Free speech. Control what people say, gonna tell people what to believe? Gonna tell people, I don't f*cking tell any other human being what to say, what to believe, and there is no leashes, on any of them." 

White then asked what the question from the reporter was, to which the shocked man replied "I was asking that question, I'll move on though." 

"Probably a good idea, because that's ridiculous to say that I give someone a leash," White added. "Free speech brother. People can say whatever they want, and they can believe whatever they want." 

In a post on X, Donald Trump Jr praised White for standing up to the media. "Dana White is the man. If everyone did this, if everyone showed the same level of contempt of our media back at them like they have shown to us for decades, we could end their nonsense and make them be journalists and not activists once again!" he said. 

Conservative activist Chris Elston, also known as Billboard Chris, noted that White "melted" the reporter's brain. "He’s so used to being a chained dog, he thinks everyone else should be, too," he added. 

The post-fight reporter was alluding to a back-and-forth earlier this week, when UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland went off on a reporter who questioned him about comments he had made about the LGBTQ+ community in the past. Stickland accused reporter Neil Davidson of being "part of the f*cking problem." 

Stickland was accused of homophobia and transphobia even though his criticism was for the government. During the interaction, Davidson tried again to bring it back to the LGBTQ community when he asked the champ his views on the trans community. 

"Ten years ago, to be trans was a mental f*cking illness, and now all of a sudden people like you have weaseled their way in the world—You are an infection, you are the definition of weakness. Everything that's wrong with the world is because of f*cking you," Strickland responded.