Dricus Du Plessis of South Africa (left) punches Sean Strickland of United States during in their middleweight title bout of UFC 312 event. RIGHT: Slain US political activist Charlie Kirk. Photos: Imago

Former UFC champion Sean Strickland has ignited public outrage following his comments on the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk.

American MMA fighter and former UFC champion Sean Strickland has once again ignited public outrage with his controversial statements.

This time, the catalyst was the murder of political activist and a Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk, which Strickland commented on in a way that left many speechless.

Strickland openly admitted to watching a video of the assassination of Kirk, who was killed during a lecture at a Utah college, and stated that it, as he put it, “excited” him.

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“I was on Twitter, and someone wrote to me: ‘Did you hear Charlie Kirk got shot?’ My first reaction was: ‘No, but I’m excited.’ I felt a rush of dopamine and thought I had to watch that video. When I saw it, it was horrific, but in a strange way, it excited me. I could even feel my muscles trembling,” Strickland recounted.

The fighter then confessed that his own thoughts shocked him. “I thought – what’s next? Is the killer Black? Is he a liberal? Will there be more violence? Let’s light that bastard up, I need excitement! And then I asked myself – how did I become such a sociopath? How did I become so detached from people that I don’t see them as humans, but only as threats and problems?”

Strickland explained that part of the answer might lie in how we consume news today. “We watch a girl getting stabbed in the subway, we watch children under rubble… We’ve become so desensitized that everything seems normal. We’ve become sociopaths, and that’s a bit sad,” he added.

Strickland, 34, held the UFC middleweight belt from September 2023 to January 2024. However, his fighting prowess is often overshadowed by scandals – from controversial statements against women’s sports and advocating for firearms, to stories of a difficult childhood with an abusive and addicted father.

This time, however, he didn’t directly offend anyone – but he managed to shock and concern the public with the very way he described his emotions regarding a man’s death.