UFC 293: American Sean Strickland blasts Australian government in shocking outburst as he claims nation has no freedom of speech after a pregnant woman was arrested for anti-lockdown Facebook post: ‘Are you confusing us with Russia?’
UFC 293: American Sean Strickland slams the Australian government in a shocking outburst for claiming the nation has no freedom of speech after a pregnant woman was arrested over anti-lockdown Facebook post: ‘Are you confusing us with Russia?’
- Sean Strickland has criticized the Australian government
- The UFC star has made polarizing statements in the past
- He claims that Australians are being denied freedom of speech
Controversial UFC star Sean Strickland lashed out at the Australian government in a bizarre outburst on Wednesday after claiming Australians are being denied freedom of expression.
Strickland, 32, avoided jail time earlier this week after admitting punching a fan who taunted him in Bondi ahead of his UFC 293 fight against middleweight champion Israel Adesanya on Sunday.
And now he is attracting attention again after he scathingly criticized the Australian government during the media day in Sydney.
Strickland, an outspoken figure who has self-identified as a former white supremacist and has made controversial comments about women and race in the past, claimed that the Australian public should not speak up.
“It needs to be talked about,” he said. “You threw a pregnant woman in jail during Covid because of a FB post. That needs to be talked about. Shame on you. How do you feel about that? It was all over the news, how do you not know about that?’
Sean Strickland claimed Australia has no freedom of speech during bizarre outburst
Strickland was referring to an incident in September 2020 when a 28-year-old pregnant woman was arrested by police in Ballarat for sharing a Facebook post in which she allegedly encouraged people to attend an anti-lockdown protest.
Zoe Lee Buhler was handcuffed in her living room in front of her two children and partner and charged with sedition.
“It’s about Australia,” Strickland continued. “I would like you guys so much more if you had freedom of speech, so if you could go ahead and create a freedom of speech like that of the greatest country in the world, we’d get along better.
‘I mean, why isn’t that standard with you? How can you not have freedom of speech? You have a government that can say, “If you say something we don’t like, we’ll throw you in jail,” how the hell do you rationalize that?’
A reporter then asked Strickland, “Are you confusing us with Russia?”
Strickland replied, “No, I’m saying there was a pregnant woman who was thrown in jail during Covid.
“I love Australia and I love the Australian people, but you’ve done some shit, and so has America, but I think once Australia has freedom of speech I’ll like you a lot more.”
Strickland landed in Sydney earlier this week and gave the city an underhand compliment during a UFC 293 Embedded vlog.
Strickland referred to the case where a pregnant woman from Ballarat was arrested for posting an anti-lockdown message on Facebook
“So I talk about Australia a lot because it’s kind of weird, you’re all descendants of convicts, and yet you have a really nice city,” Strickland said.
“How the hell did that happen?”
A while later, he took to Twitter to give fans more of his thoughts on the port city.
“I’m in Sydney and I thought I’d be surrounded by dirty liberals,” he wrote.
“Gay and trans flags everywhere… Literally zero… maybe America is the problem, lmao!”