Sean Strickland and Machine Gun Kelly had a volatile encounter at a Power Slap event, leading to ongoing public insults and mutual disdain, with Kelly advising Strickland to stop talking about him while Strickland responded with further derogatory comments.
Sean Strickland fully acknowledges he probably rubs some people the wrong way. You can add musician Machine Gun Kelly to that list.
Back in February, the former UFC middleweight champion met the rapper and rock star, whose real name is Colson Baker, at a Power Slap event. They were introduced by mutual friend and Monster Energy ambassador Luke Trembath. The encounter almost immediately turned volatile.
Strickland later claimed he “almost hit a vampire” while calling the Cleveland native a “goth South Park character.” The incident didn’t sit well with UFC CEO Dana White. He later said the altercation wasn’t Kelly’s fault but rather, “You can’t bring Sean Strickland around any other human beings.”
While Strickland has addressed the incident numerous times, Kelly finally gave his side of the story about the run-in when appearing on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast. “I don’t know this guy from a crumb of bread, right?” Kelly said. “I didn’t know who he was when I met him.”
“I got hip afterwards that he’s like insanely racist and homophobic and just not my type of guy,” Kelly continued. “So I would have never even wanted to shake hands with him in the first place.” But he is also just a representative of every person who’s too scared to just be themselves.
Prior to Kelly’s comments, Strickland gave his latest version of the encounter while speaking to Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick on his podcast, Verse Us. “He’s wearing like a fcking vampire trenchcoat, has a fcking purse, painted nails — and ‘Dingo’ [Trembath], you know me, dude. Why would you do this?”
“Why would you set me up? I just look at him, like my brain, I’m trying to process,” Strickland said. “I’m looking into the void and I think I just said, ‘What the fck? Are you a fcking gay vampire?’” Then the way he looked at me, it wasn’t funny.
Like, if you would have said something funny like, ‘Oh yeah, you look like a white trash hillbilly,’ I would have been like, ‘[Yeah,] I drive a Tesla, that’s gay.’ He looked at me with such f*cking disgust. There’s this little voice in my head said, ‘We’re fighting.’
Then my girl got involved and broke us up. There was no physical altercation but clearly Strickland still harbors ill will towards Kelly after the incident went viral.
For his part, the 34-year-old musician isn’t losing any sleep over Strickland. But he did offer some friendly advice to the former champ about how to handle himself moving forward.
“He’s so dumb that I’m going to tell him right now,” Kelly said to Strickland. “You should not keep saying stuff because it just makes me look better.”
“But you’re going to keep saying stuff,” Kelly added. “So I know that you’ll react and say more things.” Learn this — shut the f*ck up and don’t speak on me anymore and live your life.
But you won’t and I’m going to continue laughing at you because you’re a f*cking idiot. Of course, it didn’t take Strickland long to respond. Just as Kelly expected.
“Getting lectured by a guy who drinks blood and wears a purse,” Strickland wrote. Dawg you had a mid-life crisis and tattooed your entire body.
The "the x community of intolerance." Y’all I’d hang out with you toxic trolls any day over this cnt. Go back to cutting yourself you fcking weirdo.
Getting lectured by a guy who drinks blood and wears a purse.. Dawg you had a mid-life crisis and tattooed your entire body. The “the x community of intolerance” yall I’d hang out with you toxic trolls any day over this cunt… Go back to cutting yourself you fucking weirdo https://t.co/4CY2L7gypT
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA)