Raquel Pennington takes aim at ‘judgemental’ comments made by Sean Strickland: “Stuff like that is not okay”

Women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington was frustrated by Sean Strickland’s comments over UFC 297 fight week.

‘Rocky’ fought in the co-main event in Canada over the weekend, facing Mayra Bueno Silva. There, Raquel Pennington scored a unanimous decision win after five lackluster rounds of action. In the process, she won the bantamweight title left vacant by Amanda Nunes last June.

For Raquel Pennington, the victory was an end to a weird, and frustrating UFC 297 fight week. Sean Strickland was at the top of the pay-per-view card on Saturday, suffering a split-decision loss to Dricus du Plessis. ‘Tarzan’ made a lot of enemies, and fans through fight week, as he espoused his political views.

Along with that, were a series of comments made about LGBT people by Sean Strickland. During UFC 297 media day, he famously got into it with a reporter, who asked him about previous controversial statements that he made. Strickland defended the comments that he made, while also aiming at the reporter, in an exchange that quickly went viral.

His comments got under the skin of Raquel Pennington. The champion herself is lesbian and married to women’s strawweight contender Tecia Torres. While Pennington didn’t let Sean Strickland’s comments get to her in fight week, she still feels frustrated. Not because she was personally hurt, but because she knows that his comments will impact others.

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Raquel Pennington opens up on frustration with Sean Strickland’s UFC 297 comments

“For people like that, it hurts my heart.” Raquel Pennington stated in a recent interview with SportsNet when asked about Sean Strickland. “To pass so much judgment, the things he says aren’t going to impact my life. They’re never going to impact my life like it’s not going to change what I’m doing, how happy I am, how full my heart is. But you know, things that are said like that, the judgment that is passed, it really impacts people.”

She continued, “Stuff like that is not okay. I honestly ignored all of the noise this week, so it was just outside distractions. I just heard about it because I was doing so much media. But other than that, it is what it is. Yeah, my family reached out to me about it, Dana came and talked to me before the press conference to see how I was holding up with things… That’s on him, that’s not on me. Like I said, it’s not going to impact my life.”

“But, the fact that he can pass so much judgment and make disgusting comments like, just kind of shows the kind of person he is.” Raquel Pennington concluded her thoughts on Sean Strickland. “…That’s the reason the world is the way it is. So many people have to make comments about other people’s lives, or the way they live, gender, race, it all stems from there.”

What do you make of these comments about Sean Strickland? Do you agree with UFC champion Raquel Pennington?