Sean Strickland Slams Joaquin Buckley After Leaked Sparring Footage

UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland has turned on President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance after the Republican Party’s devastating losses in the midterm elections.

Strickland, 35, was once one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in combat sports.

He pledged campaign cash to Trump from inside the octagon.

He attended White House events.

Now he is calling the administration out for what he sees as broken promises.

The shift began after the midterms, when several historic Republican strongholds, including Texas and Kansas, flipped to Democrats.

Vance posted a lengthy explanation on social media about why the GOP lost.

He listed four factors: ending the war, focusing on the cost of living and inflation, putting America first, and changing the nation’s relationship with Israel.

That post has drawn nearly 60 million views.

It also drew a blunt response from Strickland.

“You lost because you and Trump lied about everything,” Strickland replied to Vance’s post on X.

The comment marked a complete reversal for a fighter who once embraced the MAGA label.

Earlier this year, Strickland claimed he was “banned” from a UFC White House event due to “anti-Israel” comments he had made online.

That snub appears to have accelerated his break with the administration.

Now, in the same week as his political U-turn, Strickland is also locked in a public feud with welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley.

The conflict started months ago.

At a Brand Risk event in May, Strickland casually repeated the N-word in response to a comment from someone else.

“Tap n—a, I like that,” he said.

The remark drew backlash on social media at the time.

Buckley, 32, apparently felt it was time to confront Strickland directly about it.

At a recent event, Buckley and an associate ran into Strickland.

In grainy footage shared online, Buckley and his associate can be heard questioning the middleweight champion over his choice of words.

“I see what you trying to do,” Buckley told Strickland.

“Brother, don’t call people the N-word. It’s offensive, G,” Buckley’s associate added.

“It’s disrespectful, bro.”

“If anybody tells me not to do anything, I am gonna do it,” Strickland responded.

The exchange grew tense but did not turn physical.

After a few minutes, the two went their separate ways.

Buckley then posted the confrontation video online with a caption explaining his actions.

“We saw Strickland and I approached him and I let him know I know what he doing but these platforms you got to be careful what you say at all time,” Buckley wrote.

He also insisted he approaches everyone with the same attitude in these situations.

He alleged that people avoid him when he tries to have these conversations.

That post did not sit well with Strickland.

The champion responded by sharing sparring footage of the two fighters.

The clip is brief and grainy.

It shows Strickland landing a counter shot on a fighter rushing toward him.

The fighter drops to the canvas.

Strickland made it clear who he was referring to in the caption.

“Sit down Buckley,” he wrote.

Buckley replied in the comments: “Love it. #NowDoItAgain.”

The feud escalated from there.

Strickland took a dig at Buckley over his recent run of losses.

“I will say this with —” Strickland began, before trailing off in the available quotes.

The sparring video does not indicate when it was filmed.

It does not confirm whether it happened before or after their in-person confrontation.

It offers a glimpse of the pair training together, not proof of what a fight between them would look like.