Sean Strickland justifies trash talk at Ian Machado Garry and his wife: ‘You put her front and f****** center’

Sean Strickland isn’t backing down from insults aimed at Ian Machado Garry or his wife, Layla, despite saying some subjects should be out of bounds on trash talk.

At UFC 297 media day on Wednesday, Strickland justified his insults, claiming Garry made his wife a huge part of the promotion for his fights, including photos Garry posted wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Geoff Neal’s mugshot with her standing alongside him.

Strickland said that makes her fair game.

“You went out and put your wife front and f****** center,” he said. “You put her front and f****** center. You made her design a shirt. You made her f****** hold the baby while you wear it laughing. You put her front and center.

“You are a f***** cuck. I go hard on everybody. Sometimes some s*** gets on me, I’m fully aware of that. But it is what it is.”

During an emotional interview with comedian Theo Von, Strickland addressed traumatic events he suffered through as a kid while reacting to a heated altercation with Dricus du Plessis ahead of their fight at UFC 297. Strickland said when it came to trash talk, “you don’t really talk about a man’s wife, you don’t talk about a man’s kids, and you don’t about a kid being abused.”

Those comments came after Strickland had blasted Garry and Layla Machado Garry during interviews and over social media, going as far as calling her a “sexual predator” due to their age difference (Ian is 26, Layla is 40).

Garry initially fired back at Strickland on social media after hearing the UFC middleweight champion’s on off-limits trash talk. He later added he wanted to fight Strickland because “any person who ever talks or mentions me, my wife and my family in that way, I’m gonna get my hands on them.”

Strickland didn’t seem too concerned about a possible fight with Garry, though he’s not opposed to the idea, especially if the Irish fighter gets anywhere near him in public.

“The cuck, does he really want to fight me? What a f****** c***,” Strickland said. “Ian Garry is such a f****** c***. When you guys interview him, do you ever ask him what are you going to do when she’s 60 and you’re 40? Are you allowed to f*** other women? God, I hate that f****** guy. I hate that f****** guy so much.

“If Ian Garry was right in front of me, I’d f****** fight him. Ian Garry, he’s a piece of s***. I think we can all agree that Ian Garry is a piece of s***. He’s a piece of s***.”

Strickland also took issue with Garry getting upset over insults at his wife after selling a t-shirt featuring Neal’s mugshot. He said he reached out to Neal afterward to show support after Garry used his arrest as ammunition.

“That’s f***** up,” Strickland said about the mugshot t-shirt. “After I did that, I posted my mugshot. My charges are way more serious than f***** Geoff Neal. I dropped out of f****** elementary school. I actually like that guy. I actually messaged him before, ‘Can I post a picture of the mugshot, it’s funny,’ and he was like, ‘Wo worries.’ I’m going to post mine next to it! Ian Garry, he’s just a weak man. He’s a f****** weak man.

“This is what I try to tell people. You meet these f****** c**** all day long, and they smile and they shake your f****** hand and they smile, but really their core is f****** rotted. You look at me, I’m an assh***. You look at me and I say hard s***. I make fun of my co-main event. I say hard s***. I’m not an a******. I’m just saying what you’re thinking. Ian Garry is a f****** c*** and he hides who he is.”

As far as getting upset when the tables get turned on him, Strickland doesn’t express any regret over what he’s said, much less what’s being said about him. He refutes the suggestion that he can dish it out but not take it after constantly taking low blows when addressing Garry, UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley – or anybody else for that matter.

“If one day I wake up and cuck Ian Garry and everybody hates me, do you think I give a f***?” Strickland said. “You think I give a f*** if I walk down the street and someone says there’s Sean Strickland, f*** him. I don’t care. Enjoy, motherf*****.

“You better just do it far enough away, because I’ll hit you. I’m not Colby Covington. I’m not Chris Curtis. I’m not going to delete my f****** Twitter. Enjoy. You want to go call me whatever you want, have at it. Enjoy. Just do it online.”