The buildup to UFC Freedom 250 has been nothing short of chaotic, but Sean Strickland has successfully turned Washington, D.C. into his own personal action movie.

After screaming for weeks that he had been banned from the UFC White House event and that he would be protesting the event outside the White House with a bullhorn, the newly crowned two-time middleweight champion followed through on his promise to show up anyway—only to end up needing a police rescue after a failed attempt to blend into the crowd backfired. In the aftermath of the chaos, a visibly hyped ‘Tarzan’ took to social media to thank the local authorities for pulling him out of a massive crowd surge outside near the press conference at Lincoln Memorial.

“You guys, boys in blue just saved my life,” Strickland told his followers in a video on his social media. “We’re out there doing the right things… we almost died.”

According to Sean Strickland, the entire ordeal began when local police officers failed to recognise him as he tried to gatecrash the press conference anonymously. He managed to blend in with the crowd initially, but seeing a guy lurking in a low-slung hoodie immediately drew red flags.

“I have my face covered,” Strickland said in a follow-up video. “And these cops come up to me. They’re like, ‘Hey, you gotta take off your hoodie.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m the middleweight champion. Like, if I take my hoodie off, it’s just gonna be f—— bad. I can’t do it.’ And the guy says, ‘No, you have to do it.’

“I’m like, I can’t just pull it down, just f—— Google. He’s like, no, you have to do it. I’m like, dude, I’ll take my hoodie off. But you better stay and keep me safe and protect me. And they’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll do it. So I take my hoodie off, and they shined a flashlight in my face. And all of a sudden, the crowd forms. And these cops just take the f— off.”

Soon after he took off his hoodies, riled-up MMA fans began swarming him. The crowd surged to the point where the 35-year-old had no choice but to take off. Clips showed him jumping rail guards trying to evade swarming fans who were now chasing him. It was then that the local police escorted him out and away from the Fan Zone in their cars.

The near-riot is only the latest escalation in Sean Strickland’s ongoing public war with the event’s guest list. While head honcho Dana White historically loves to wave the “freedom of speech” flag, allowing fighters like Colby Covington and Conor McGregor to push the boundaries of controversy, the final call for Freedom 250 access seemingly came down to political vetting.

‘Tarzan’ claims Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell told him flatly that he was not cleared to get through the gates because he publicly insulted Donald Trump’s ‘political handlers,’ joked about the Epstein list, and said that the administration was owned by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dana White playfully dismissed the situation by suggesting Strickland “is banned from humanity” rather than the White House.

“Everybody’s banned apparently,” White said at the media scrum. “Apparently f—— everybody is banned. Of course, Sean Strickland isn’t [banned]. Sean Strickland is banned from humanity. We don’t want him near any human beings anywhere.

“F——— shows up at Power Slap; he starts fights. He made it very clear he didn’t want to be a part of this event, and now apparently he’s banned. Nobody is banned. Nobody’s music is banned. No media members have been banned. The list goes on and on.”

And while this made Sean Strickland shed more light on the ‘banned’ narrative, according to him, the story remains the same: he is not welcome at the event.

“I never said the UFC banned,” he wrote in a comment on Instagram. “I said, ‘The White House didn’t clear me.’”

Combat sports stars moving into political crosshairs have historically faced harsh consequences, most notably when Muhammad Ali was stripped of his boxing titles and exiled from the sport for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.

While the parallel is not as straightforward considering the things Strickland has said in the past or the controversies he has caused outside of the Octagon, the fact that his words got him trouble with the Trump administration does point to him being sidelined because of his stance. Though Sean Strickland’s situation is obviously less severe, it highlights what happens when a fighter’s inflammatory words clash with a highly selective political venue. However, he has no intentions to back down.

Sean Strickland begs fans for tickets after White House clearance drama

Despite almost being crushed by his own fans at the Lincoln Memorial, the 35-year-old has no plans to leave D.C. early or refund his plane tickets. Since he can’t get beyond the South Lawn gates to watch the seven-fight event in person, ‘Tarzan’ is now actively begging his followers for a spare pass to the massive, 80,000-person fan zone across the street.

“Does anyone have an extra ticket to the 250 Fan Fest I can have? Will I need a Yamaka?” he wrote on X.

The Ellipse festivities will include live music and massive LED screens for the public, which is just where the middleweight champion plans to park himself. After all, vetting and security at the White House have been notoriously strict for a long time now, especially after high-profile breaches such as the 2009 state dinner gatecrashing by Michaele Salahi and Tareq Salahi.

So, whether he gets a ticket to watch with the crowd or decides to bring out the big megaphone he threatened to use for a protest, ‘Tarzan’ has ensured that even without an official seat, he remains the biggest wildcard of the entire weekend.