Former UFC champion Sean Strickland has admitted he felt a 'dopamine spike' upon hearing that right-wing activist Charlie Kirk had been shot dead, and was 'excited' to watch the murder video. In a video posted to his Instagram story, the 34-year-old American reflected on his reaction, questioning how he had become so desensitised to violence.
Strickland, who held the UFC middleweight title from September 2023 to January 2024, is known for his controversial statements. He previously expressed a desire to kill an opponent in the cage, dismissed women's MMA, and criticised Australian gun laws before fighting there.
Kirk, a prominent conservative commentator and ally of Donald Trump, was shot dead at a Utah college campus on Wednesday (11 September). Strickland described his initial reaction: 'Somebody says: 'Hey, did you hear that Charlie Kirk got shot?' And my gut reaction was like: 'No, I f***ing didn't, but I'm excited.' I felt this little dopamine spike.'
He continued: 'Then I see the video. Real bad, real bad, but I'm still kind of excited from it. I can feel my muscles tensing. And then I start thinking: 'Was the shooter black? Was it a liberal? Am I gonna get more fun? Am I gonna get more violence? Let's burn this motherf***** down! I need some excitement!''
Strickland then questioned his own morality: 'How the f*** did I become such a sociopath? How am I so detached from human beings? When people walk down the street, I don't even see people; I just see potential threats and problems.' He attributed this to a culture of desensitisation, citing recent news of a stabbing on a subway and children pulled from buildings.
The fighter also criticised consumerism, saying: 'Slowly they just manipulated us to be sociopathic consumers, and the only thing we want is stuff and things. It's taken the soul from us, they took God from us, they've taken everything from us. And we're just mindless, sociopathic consumers. I don't know how to fix it.'
