UFC Champ Sean Strickland Shares Details Regarding Abusive Childhood

While Sean Strickland is known for his unabashed trash talk, the middleweight champion believes some topics are off limits.

Strickland slammed Colby Covington for bringing up Leon Edwards’ deceased father in the lead-up to their UFC 296 clash. The American felt similar boundaries were crossed by his upcoming UFC 297 opponent, Dricus Du Plessis, during a recent seasonal presser.

Bringing up Strickland’s abusive childhood, Du Plessis told the champ that he would put on a worse beating on him than his father. “Tarzan” was admittedly triggered by Du Plessis’ comments, which led to him attacking the South African while attending UFC 296 a day after the presser.

Strickland discussed his feelings said during an appearance on comedian Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast.

“There’s some things that are off limits. You don’t really talk about a man’s wife, you don’t talk about a man’s kids, and you don’t talk about a kid being abused. These things are all off limits. Once he crossed that … I tried to f---ing ignore it. I was boiling.

“Whenever Dricus goes on there and he jokes about that s—, dude, you have no idea. I’ll f---ing kill you, you have no idea. I think the issue is, too, when you’re a kid and you’re made to be a victim your whole life, as an adult, you’re like, never again. I’ll f---ing kill you.”

Strickland also claims to have bitten Du Plessis during the brawl, although it wasn’t captured in any of the videos.

“I’m so happy they didn’t get it from a right angle – I bit him. I s--t you not,” Strickland said. “Whenever he went into me, I remember at that moment, he tackles me and right there, you see my head goes up toward him, I started thinking how can hurt this man? I’m going take a f---ing chunk out of him. I’m going to bite his f---ing ear off.

“I remember telling myself at that moment, ‘Sean, you can’t do that, that’s something you can’t walk away from. If you do that, then I’m going to jail.'”

Police and security broke up the scuffle between Strickland and Du Plessis, and the champ eventually elected to leave the arena. UFC CEO Dana White later took responsibility for seating the competitors close to each other.

Strickland also went on to reveal intimate details about his traumatic childhood on the podcast.

“I was in probably third or fourth grade, I used to always sleep in my mom’s room because I thought my dad was going to kill my mom. So, I would sleep by the door, I’d sleep under the bed. I’d sleep by the door because I thought my dad was going to kill my mom.

“One day, it was so f---ed up, they just got in a bad fight, it was like third, fourth grade, my dad was like ‘f--k that, he’s not sleeping in here tonight, kick him out.’ So, I like army crawled under the bed, and I’m sleeping under the bed. I’m like laying under the bed as they’re fighting because I think my dad was going to kill my mom.

“My dad gets on top of my mom, and I remember he said, ‘I’m going to f---ing kill you tonight.’ Maybe it’s just rough sex, we don’t know at this moment. I’m under the bed, and he starts strangling her. I get out, and the only thing I can see is a guitar, I just f--ing crack him in the head and call the cops. I run down the street to call the cops, he’s arrested, and my dumb ass mom bails him out of jail. I would say that’s the tip of the iceberg.

“I remember I used to just sit there and hug my mom’s leg in the kitchen. We had this little nook, and she would go in the nook, and I would sit there and all night long, I’m by the feet of my mom and my dad [is saying], ‘I’m going to f---ing kill you.’ He would talk about burning her face with acid. I’m in elementary school. He’d always tell her, ‘If you cheat on me’ — and she probably was cheating on him — ‘If you cheat on me, I’m going to cut you up and put you in a bottle of acid and bury you.’

"Now you fast forward this, I don’t go to school. I’m up until three in the morning, and I couldn’t stay awake in school. I stopped believing in God when I was in elementary school. I was laying in bed crying thinking about killing myself. ‘There can’t be a f—ing God here. How is there a God. Why would I be in this situation if there was a God? There ain’t no f---ing God.’ My earliest memories. When I think back when I was a kid, I can’t recall one good memory, not one f---ing good memory as a kid.

“It’s one of the things people don’t understand is trauma. People understand, when I talk about, ‘I’d kill a man,’ it’s like you don’t understand. When you go through that level of trauma, you just greet the world differently.”