Sean Strickland speaks to reporters during a Paramount+ and UFC media day as his rant about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show and women’s sports sparks backlash. (Images via Getty)
Bad Bunny just delivered one of the biggest halftime audiences in Super Bowl history. Sean Strickland still turned him into a target.During a Paramount+ and UFC media day ahead of his fight with Anthony Hernandez, the former UFC middleweight champion went on a sexist, homophobic tirade that circled from women’s sports to the NFL’s Super Bowl LX halftime show and Bad Bunny’s spot on that stage.
Sean Strickland turns media day into a rant about Bad Bunny and the NFL
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Strickland unloaded on the NFL’s decision to put the Puerto Rican star at the center of this year’s halftime show at Levi’s Stadium.“Look at the NFL, dude. I don’t even want to say the f***t’s name because it’s just like, somebody give me his name… You know what I’m talking about, the halftime show guy. The Puerto Rican, right? Puerto Rican? Yeah, that f**king f***t. It’s so crazy that this is America now.”From there, he framed the league as something that had walked away from what he calls “being a man.”“Like, back in the day, the NFL was the f**king standard of being a f**king man, and now every f**king year, the NFL, I think they all get together around a table and say, ‘You know what, guys? How do we f**king ruin this sport? How do we gy it up? How do we f*cking ruin it? Well, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we bring a gy foreigner who doesn’t speak f**king English and have him perform it?’”
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show averaged roughly 128 million viewers, with the game itself pulling about 125 million, according to recent broadcast figures.
The NFL has been aggressive about using global music stars to grow the audience. Strickland’s problem is not the ratings. It is the idea of a Spanish-speaking Latin pop and reggaeton artist being the face of the league’s biggest night.The comments also ignore a basic detail about the man he is attacking. Puerto Ricans are American citizens. That did not stop Strickland from labeling Bad Bunny a “foreigner” in the middle of a rant about what the NFL represents.
Misogynistic shots at women’s sports put more pressure on Sean Strickland and Paramount+
Bad Bunny was not the only target. As reported by Variety’s Jack Dunn, Strickland also went at Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano, and women’s sports in general while promoting a Netflix MMA event.“Ronda Rousey can fight,” Strickland said. “That bitch can fight… I think she lost a few fights to her ex, but bitch can fight.”On Carano, he kept the focus on her looks instead of her fighting career. “I like Gina. She’s like super conservative.
She was hot, you know. I was like a kid when she fought. I may have jerked off to her once or twice back in the day.”Then he went broad. “No one gives a fuck about women’s sports,” Strickland said, before adding that women “cook” and “clean” and claiming they have been empowered “too much” and “ruined society.”This is the same fighter who was suspended by the UFC in July 2025 after attacking another fighter while working as a cornerman.
Now he is back in a main promotional window at a time when Paramount+ has a seven-year, multibillion-dollar rights deal to be the exclusive home of UFC events in the United States.The blowback has started. Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III called him out on X after the Bad Bunny comments.“Sean Strickland got hit so hard by a foreigner that he forgot Puerto Ricans are US citizens,” Griffin wrote. “Not to mention that this misogynistic cry baby would get tossed like salad if he ever stepped foot on a football field in the NFL. Worry about not getting knocked out in your next fight.”For the NFL, Bad Bunny’s halftime show was a numbers win. For Paramount+ and the UFC, Strickland’s latest microphone moment is a test of how much bigoted noise they are willing to live with from one of their most volatile names.
