{"id":489870,"date":"2026-02-19T09:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489870\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T09:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:56:07","slug":"social-media-reacts-to-former-ufc-champs-bigoted-bad-bunny-nfl-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489870\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media reacts to former UFC champ&#8217;s bigoted Bad Bunny, NFL rant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 18, 2026, 10:20 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Former UFC middleweight champion <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/sean-strickland\/\" data-autotag=\"16818cdf-3265-4bdc-a8a8-f2d91f3af900\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Sean Strickland<\/a> set social media ablaze on Wednesday following his comments about the NFL and the Super Bowl halftime show featuring world-renowned artist Bad Bunny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Strickland (29-7 MMA, 16-7 UFC) headlines UFC Fight Night 267 (<a href=\"https:\/\/paramountplus.qflm.net\/6yoorr\" data-v-afl=\"\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount+<\/a>) against <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/anthony-hernandez\/\" data-autotag=\"8faaa23e-63f5-46d9-a4b6-410b56523f76\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Anthony Hernandez<\/a> at Toyota Center in Houston. When the fight was announced, Strickland posted a racially insensitive meme depicting himself as an ICE agent, next to the Mexican-American Hernandez (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC), wearing a sombrero and a poncho.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">During media day on Wednesday, Strickland&#8217;s bigotry took center stage once again in an unprompted tirade about the NFL and Bad Bunny \u2013 and that was only one portion of a session filled with unsavory remarks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Look at the NFL, dude. I don&#8217;t even want to say the f*ggot&#8217;s name because it&#8217;s just like, what \u2013 somebody give me his name,&#8221; Strickland said. &#8220;Come say his name, I don&#8217;t want to say it. You know what I&#8217;m talking about, the halftime show guy. The Puerto Rican, right? Puerto Rican?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A reporter offered Bad Bunny&#8217;s name, which set him off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Yeah, that f*cking f*ggot,&#8221; Strickland said. &#8220;It&#8217;s so crazy that this is America now. Like, back in the day dude, the NFL was the f*cking standard of being a f*cking man, and now every f*cking year, the NFL, I think they all get together around a table and say, &#8216;You know what, guys? How do we f*cking ruin this sport? How do we gay it up? How do we f*cking ruin it? Well, I&#8217;ll tell you what. Why don&#8217;t we bring a gay foreigner who doesn&#8217;t speak f*cking English and have him perform it?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A video clip of Strickland&#8217;s comments went viral, prompting plenty of reaction and reaching far outside the MMA bubble, which is unfortunately used to these unhinged rants from Strickland due to the UFC&#8217;s lack of accountability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Below are a few reactions on social media:<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/88519197007-hag-ak-qj-ws-aa-zlo-n.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 18, 2026, 10:20 p.m. ET Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland set social media ablaze on Wednesday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[202558,64,63,593,85,203779,203780,203469,247578,224877,205669,243380,203145,203781,203146,203142,202991,247577,229756,203139,220519,202561],"class_list":{"0":"post-489870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sstssportsufc","14":"tag-sstsnufc","15":"tag-tagamerican-football","16":"tag-taganthony-hernandez","17":"tag-tagbad-bunny","18":"tag-tagcelebrities-entertainment-news","19":"tag-tagdiscrimination-identity-relations","20":"tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","21":"tag-tagmartial-arts","22":"tag-tagnational-sports","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagoverall-negative","25":"tag-tagsean-strickland","26":"tag-tagsensitive-subjects","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagu-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","29":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}