To the surprise of no one, Sean Strickland was a bully in high school.
Over the last few years, the former UFC middleweight champion has earned quite the fan following, though little of it concerns his success inside the Octagon. Instead, fans have gravitated towards ‘Tarzan’ for his unapologetically outspoken nature which has seen him both inspire and/or disgust anyone within earshot.
Recently, Strickland once again had people either praising or condemning his comments after revealing that he had spent much of his high school years treating another student like a punching bag and tormenting him daily.
“Public schools=hell,” Strickland wrote on X. “There was this one kid, Dunkin. My full time HS punching bag, until he vanished. I was so hard on this guy. Beating him up in the locker room daily, calling him colombine. My bad man, truly.. not an excuse… but I got it way worse than I gave it.”
Public schools=hell
There was this one kid, Dunkin. My full time HS punching bag, until he vanished. I was so hard on this guy. Beating him up in the locker room daily, calling him colombine.
My bad man, truly..
not an excuse… but I got it way worse than I gave it.
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) September 5, 2024
UFC Fans Lash Out at Sean Strickland Over High School Bullying Admission
Strickland’s comments came shortly after a mass shooting occurred around 10:20 a.m. on September 4 at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia. Two students and two teachers were gunned down by 14-year-old student Colt Gray.
Needless to say, many were not thrilled to hear of Strickland’s admission.
“Man Sean you’re a piece of shit.”
“You being a high school bully makes sense.”
“70% I like you, 30% you seem like a bullying coward.”
“Bro you’re a literal walking piece of garbage.”
“Did you jab him to a split decision?”
“Not an excuse. I wonder what happened to that dude.”
“So this sort of makes sense. You bullied a kid. The teacher bullied you. Kind of fair.”
“Bulling others is not acceptable.”
However, not everyone was quick to slam the UFC star. A few were understanding and even shared their own stories of being bullies and their attempts to make amends years later.
“Kids are callous as they can’t zoom out. I have similar stories, but realistically, if all us youngsters had positive male figures spearheading our journey, a lot of that could’ve been mitigated.”
“Same with me. I bullied this kid. A long time ago on Facebook I apologized to him and said I was sorry.”
“At least Sean admits he was in the wrong. I see 1000s of clips on X where people gang up on others or beat up handicapped people. It’s sick.”
Strickland’s last appearance inside the Octagon came in June when he scored a split decision win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302. The victory re-established him as the top-ranked contender in the division and is expected to run it back with Dricus Du Plessis in late 2024 or early 2025.
Strickland surrendered the middleweight title to ‘DDP’ in January via a closely contested split decision at UFC 297. You can rewatch the full fight below via the UFC’s official YouTube channel:
