Sean Strickland made big headlines in Australia ahead of UFC 312 – for all the wrong reasons.

Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) challenges middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in a title-fight rematch in the headlinr of Saturday’s event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).

Strickland is known for having no filter, going off on politics, the government, taxes, and many other topics outside of fighting itself during his media obligations.

This time, his comments irked the national news “Down Under,” with The Daily Telegraph labeling the former champion as the “UFC’s biggest imbecile” in the front cover of their most recent addition.

Strickland was asked about making the front cover of the local newspaper during Thursday’s UFC 312 pre-fight press conference.

“Bunch of communists, guys,” Strickland said. “I come to this f*cking country and I talk about freedom of speech and guns and taxes, and you got these f*cking communists in the media trying to f*cking put me down. Why? Because you want to control the media and you don’t like freedom of speech.”

The UFC seemingly took no issues with Strickland’s comments, because the promotion shared the cover image, where Strickland was called out for a “racist tired,” among other things, across its socials media platforms.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.

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