Strickland says he would have banned himself from UFC's White House card after being denied clearance

UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland will not be attending the promotion’s June 14 White House event after being told he was not cleared to attend, the fighter confirmed on X — and he says he can hardly argue with the decision.

Strickland (31-7), who has been openly critical of US involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict and made pointed remarks about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, said UFC executive Hunter Campbell had initially promised him a spot at the card following his most recent fight, with embedded camera crews present for the exchange. The story changed shortly after. “I later got a call from the UFC saying ‘I wasn’t cleared by the White House’,” Strickland wrote.

Far from expressing outrage, Strickland leaned into the absurdity of the situation. “I’m not even salty they didn’t clear me,” he wrote. “Could you picture me sitting with Kash Patel? F*ck man, I’d ban me from the White House too.”

UFC CEO Dana White pushed back on the framing that anyone had been formally banned, attributing the limited attendance to the venue’s physical constraints — 4,300 tickets in total — rather than any blacklist. White also noted that Strickland had previously made his disdain for the event known. “Sean Strickland is banned from humanity,” White said, in what he framed as a joke. “He made it very clear that he didn’t want to be a part of this event. Now, apparently, he’s banned. Nobody’s banned.”

The UFC Freedom 250 card at the White House has dominated MMA headlines for months, with fighters competing for both spots on the fight card and the scarce seats in attendance. Strickland’s exclusion — whether framed as a capacity issue or a security clearance matter — adds a fresh layer of controversy to an event that has rarely been out of the news cycle since it was announced.

The reigning middleweight champion’s account directly contradicts White’s version of events: where White suggests Strickland opted out, Strickland says he was told he had a place before being quietly informed he was not cleared. The footage Strickland references, reportedly held by the UFC’s embedded team, has not been released.