Sean Strickland has backed away from one of his harshest recent takes, this time involving Dustin Poirier. After first hammering Poirier over his post-arrest explanation and mental health comments, Strickland said he later spoke with him directly and came away with a different read on the situation.
In his apology, Strickland wrote, “I spoke to Dustin and he is legitimately messed up by his actions,” adding, “I thought he was just doing PR clean up to be honest… I guess not everyone is a piece of s* like me lol. So yeah I repent and I am sorry Dustin.”
Sean Strickland apologizes to Dustin Poirier after backlash
That was a sharp turn from the comments that put Strickland in the middle of another backlash cycle. In his first reaction, he mocked Poirier’s mention of depression and wrote, “Dustin ‘I’m depressed’ bro what? You’re rich and loved by thousands of people.. You’re not allowed to be depressed… What you did is got kicked off a flight and tried to fight a cop….relax it happens to the best of us.”
He followed that with an even harder line in video remarks, saying, “Oh, male depression is a real thing. Dude, no, it’s not. No, it’s not, especially if you’re successful, and you’ve got a family, and you’re rich. It’s not a thing, dude.”
Strickland kept going in those remarks, comparing Poirier‘s situation to children fighting cancer and telling people with that view of depression to “Shut the f* up.” That framing drew a lot of criticism in MMA circles because it treated wealth, family life, and popularity as proof that depression cannot exist. It also landed awkwardly because Strickland himself has spoken in detail about his own mental state in the past.
Strickland and Poirier on Mental Health
Back in March 2024, Strickland publicly admitted that success had not fixed what was going on in his head. He said, “I have everything I’ve ever wanted and I still am mentally unwell,” and described himself at the time as “spiraling” and feeling like “a danger to people.”
Poirier’s side of the story had already carried that same theme well before this latest incident. After his knockout loss to Justin Gaethje, Poirier spoke openly in multiple interviews about going through “real mental struggles,” starting therapy, and trying counseling, mindfulness, and gratitude work to get himself back into a better place. In one of those comments, Poirier said, “I actually started doing therapy after the fight. I think its important to open up and talk about how you feel,” while in another he said, “If you’re not feeling well, it’s not weakness to admit that you’re not feeling well.”
Poirier also appeared to frame the incident less as a publicity issue and more as a real personal low point. According to reports on his first interview after the arrest, he removed social media apps from his phone so he would not keep seeing the footage, promised his wife it would not happen again, and said he wanted to make direct amends to the officer involved. That seems to be the version Strickland says he finally saw after speaking with him.
The bigger story is less that Strickland apologized. It is that he publicly dismissed depression in Poirier, did so using arguments that clashed with his own earlier admissions, and then reversed himself once he believed Poirier’s remorse was real. Strickland explained: “So yeah I repent and I am sorry Dustin.”
