General Discussion

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/10/ufc-champion-banned-white-house-fight-trump-criticism

On Tuesday night, middleweight champion Sean Strickland wrote on X that he had been informed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that he had not been cleared to attend the event by the White House.

A UFC official “said he will get it done”, Stickland claimed, and UFC “filmed it and embedded [a UFC video channel] has the footage”. “I later got a call from the UFC saying ‘I wasn’t cleared by the White House’,” he added.

When a fan had earlier asked for specifics on why he had been excluded, Strickland replied: “I made fun of Israel and Epstein.”

In a subsequent post on X, he went further: “The only male American champ banned at the White House because I said Trump is owned by [Benjamin Netanyahu]. That’s not public opinion, it’s fact.”