UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland has put Edmonton in his sights, trashing the Alberta capital after making the trip north of the border for UFC Fight Night on Saturday.
While Strickland won’t be competing at the event being held at Rogers Place, he will be in the corner of another fighter on the card.
And after spending his first day in Edmonton, the outspoken California native was quick to slam the city, calling out apparent drug issues and a lack of policing.
“Left downtown and yep this place is a trash can. Zombies everywhere,” Strickland posted on X on Wednesday.
“It’s not American ‘I might have to kill a crack head’ bad, but it’s definitely an open drug market with zero police.”
He also shared a photo of a person on a downtown sidewalk doing “the fenti fold” — a symptom of using Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid drug. He also claimed to have encountered five people doing the same thing.
Did Sean Strickland find a dead body?
The most troubling scene that he shared was a clip of himself walking down a street with a person lying down behind a fence that Strickland said could be “dead.”
“Pretty confident this man is dead or least freshly assaulted from the Crack head mumbling,” he wrote, while adding in the clip: “I’ve gotta get out of here.”
It was unclear if the person was actually dead, unconscious or sleeping at the time while another man wearing a dark hoodie approached them.
Will Sean Strickland storm The Ledge?
Strickland also shared a couple of videos of himself approaching the Alberta Legislature Building – colloquially known as The Ledge. In the first, he wrote “I’ll never forget the great beaver 1609” — likely referring to the Beaver Wars, which took place in Canada between 1609 and 1701.
Then he joked that he didn’t know “what kind of capital building this is, but we’re Stormin for Alberton (sic),” an apparent reference to the Jan. 6 insurrectionist attacks in Washington, D.C., during which supporters of Donald Trump “stormed” the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Before he arrived in the Albertan capital, the two-time UFC middleweight reposted a video promoting a “Rally for Alberta” which is taking place at the building on Saturday.
“Lets goooo!!! Should be done with the UFC by 4. I’m going to try to make this!” Strickland wrote.
The rally is in support of the part of the referendum over the province separating from Canada.
When is Sean Strickland’s next fight?
Strickland defeated Khamzat Chimaev via split decision back in May to reclaim the UFC middleweight title, but his next fight has yet to be set as he feuds with the massive MMA company over a pay dispute.
Last week, he responded to a Paramount+ ad for the latest Avatar cartoon on the streaming platform, admitting he’s upset about how much he’s being paid by the company.
“Alright guys I gotta be honest.. I’m having a slight crash out over what you paid (Conor) McGreggor (sic)…… There is a slight chance #IGBBMN (It’s Going To Be Bad).”
Strickland, who defeated Khamzat Chimaev earlier this year to reclaim the UFC middleweight championship, then went after the MMA organization in a series of posts, stating he felt vastly underpaid compared to other stars.
“I gotta be honest unless things change with the UFC, I’m kinda over it,” he wrote on X.
“McGregor makes 30 million to fight for 30 seconds and they don’t want to pay us a fraction of it.
“Contemplating just going to 205 (pounds) knocking out my contract and scrapping with Jake Paul.”
Strickland, who has a professional MMA record of 31-7, also cited figures for what other fighters have earned and floated the idea of “speed running” his contract to get out of the UFC. However, it’s unclear how many fights he has remaining on his deal.