Sean Strickland opens up on disturbing neo-Nazi past: “I got kicked out of school for hate crimes”

Streaking UFC middleweight Sean Strickland opened up on his tough childhood during Wednesday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

Strickland (24-3 MMA) was expected to return at next month’s UFC 268 pay-per-view event against former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Unfortunately, ‘Rocky’ was forced to pullout of the contest due to injury.

While awaiting his next assignment, Sean Strickland has kept himself in the headlines by sharing some disturbing posts on social media. Most recently, the 30-year-old released a video suggesting he wanted “to do some weird sh*t” to Belal Muhammad.

Sean Strickland slams Belal Muhammad for UFC 268 callout

Today, Strickland appeared on The MMA Hour where he opened up on his disturbing childhood, which included a phase as a white supremacist.

“I was really fucking angry. I was so angry I actually went through this weird neo-Nazi, white supremacist phase when I was younger and I got kicked out of school for hate crimes, like all this crazy shit. I was angry and I had a lot of fucked-up influences in my life that it felt so good to fucking hate something. I would walk down the street with like a knife or a rock hoping to kill somebody. And when I started training I’m like man, you’re just fucking angry.”

Sean Strickland continued (h/t MMAMania):

“My grandfather was like this big piece of shit. When you’re a kid you don’t see that, you hero worship. He kinda just filled your head with crazy shit. You’re in seventh grade spouting off about Nazis, you don’t even know what the fuck that means. But you hear it from someone you look up to and that identity consumed me. Drawing swastikas walking to school, like I didn’t know what the fuck that was. Later my grandfather died and I kinda resented him for it. When you’re racist, you don’t get ahead in life. You’re fucked, man. There’s no privilege from being racist, so I resented him for a majority of my life.”

Sean Strickland is currently on a five-fight winning streak, his latest being a unanimous decision victory over Uriah Hall this past July. Who would you like to see Strickland fight next?