Sean Strickland spent Saturday afternoon accusing Joaquin Buckley of making a story bigger by yelling at it. His method of delivering that message was to yell at it four separate times in a little under two hours. I’d call it irony, except irony usually requires the guy to see the punchline coming, and I’m genuinely unsure Strickland does.
Quick catch-up. Earlier in the week, MMA Fighting’s Morning Report ran an item headlined Joaquin Buckley calling out Dustin Poirier and Strickland for use of a racial slur, with both men responding. The Between the Links panel at MMA Fighting framed it even wider, with Buckley calling out Poirier, Strickland and others. So Buckley picked a public fight with two of the least likely people in the sport to ever leave a reply unanswered. Strickland, predictably, did not leave it unanswered.
The Saturday Barrage
Starting around 4:15 p.m. ET on Nov. 7, a few hours before UFC Vegas 124 went live with Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Johnny Walker, Strickland went to work on X. First came a poll-style question: “Who is more racist.. Me or Joaquin Buckley?”
View post on X
About 20 minutes later he rolled out a theory, and I’m using his word, not mine: “I have a theory..... I think Buckley was hurt by a white woman and this is what caused his spiral.” He followed it with a benediction nobody asked for: “Bro we’ve all been hurt by a white woman. I forgive you.”
Then, roughly 90 minutes after that, the thesis statement: “Buck is the definition of the streisand effect”. Seven minutes later he posted a bare link with no text attached, because apparently the job wasn’t finished.
For the uninitiated, the Streisand effect is the internet’s name for what happens when trying to squash something makes way more people look at it. Strickland’s point is that Buckley’s angry callouts are blowing up the exact thing Buckley is mad about. On pure mechanics, he’s got a case. Every time a guy goes to war in the replies, the original post gets another lap around the timeline.
But look at who’s running laps. This is the Spider-Man-pointing-at-Spider-Man meme with a mullet. If amplifying a fight by refusing to let it die is the crime, Strickland just filed a four-count confession and timestamped every page.
View post on X
Strickland Is Running Buckley’s PR for Free
The part that actually bugs me is the math. Buckley’s last appearance was a loss to Sean Brady at UFC 328 in Newark on May 9. A welterweight coming off a defeat needs one thing above everything else, and that’s attention. Strickland, a former middleweight champion who famously upset Israel Adesanya for the belt, just handed him a weekend’s worth of it on a silver platter. Buckley’s name trended next to a guy whose fights people actually tune in for. That’s a gift, and the guy handing it out thinks he’s dunking.
Meanwhile, Strickland has real business on his plate. He’s booked against Nassourdine Imavov, and Khamzat Chimaev is already camped outside the door. Chimaev told MMA Junkie, via Championship Rounds, that he wants the winner, saying “I’m the #1 contender. I didn’t lose that match. I’m the real champion.” That’s a storyline with stakes. Strickland vs. Buckley’s mentions is a storyline with replies.
Bad Material From a Funny Guy
I love a great villain. I’ll defend Strickland’s right to be the sport’s resident chaos agent all day, because the cage-backed version of him, the one who walked into an Adesanya fight as the punchline and walked out with the title, is the best kind of heel there is. Villains are allowed to say outrageous things. They’re supposed to be good at it.
The white woman theory is lazy material. Speculating about a guy’s love life to explain his supposed spiral is the kind of bit you’d hear from the fourth-funniest guy at the bar, and it lands as a cheap shot rather than a roast. The poll asking which of them is more racist is worse as comedy, because it’s the oldest deflection on the internet dressed up as a question. You can’t be the guy calling someone the Streisand effect while personally running the Streisand effect’s social media department.
View post on X
The frustrating thing is that Strickland can be legitimately hilarious when he’s off the leash about stuff that isn’t beef. Two days earlier, on Nov. 5, he was ranting that the Boys and Girls Club has volleyball but no boxing, calling for boxing for kids to make a comeback and threatening to host boxing in a Las Vegas park himself. That’s a Strickland I’d pay to watch, a guy with a wild idea and the stubbornness to maybe actually do it. Buckley trolling is the reruns.
If Strickland really believes Buckley is feeding the fire, the move is obvious. Stop posting, beat Imavov, and let Chimaev’s claim to being the real champion become the only thing anyone’s typing about.
