Sean Strickland changed his mind about Edmonton in about 12 hours.
On Tuesday night, the UFC middleweight champion stuck up for the city. “The guys saying Edmonton is ghetto have clearly never been to a major US city,” he posted on X.
Then he took a walk downtown.
“Left downtown and yep this place is a trash can,” he wrote Wednesday morning. “Zombies everywhere.”
He said it wasn’t as bad as the U.S., joked that he “might have to kill a crack head,” and called downtown “a open drug market with zero police.”
The criticism isn’t the only thing drawing attention to his visit. Strickland also says he wants to attend a separatist rally at the Alberta Legislature on Saturday, two days before the province votes on its future in Canada.
Why he’s in Edmonton
Strickland is in town for UFC Edmonton on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Rogers Place. He isn’t fighting. He’s cornering another fighter on a card headlined by Joaquin Buckley and Canada’s Mike Malott.
The 35-year-old American won back the middleweight title in May, beating Khamzat Chimaev by split decision at UFC 328. He’s one of the sport’s loudest personalities, and he rarely keeps his opinions to MMA.
From #FreeAlberta to the Legislature
On Monday, Strickland posted “#FreeAlberta”, a slogan used by the separatist movement. He didn’t explain what he meant.
Now he wants to take it further.
He shared a post from the separatist group Rise of Alberta promoting a “Rally for Alberta” at the Alberta Legislature on Saturday at 3 p.m., the same day as the fight.
“Should be done with the UFC by 4,” he wrote. “Im going to try to make this!”
He hasn’t confirmed he’ll be there. If he goes, one of the UFC’s biggest names would be at a separatist rally 48 hours before the vote.
Strickland is American and can’t vote in Alberta’s referendum on Monday, Oct. 19. A vote to start the separation process wouldn’t make Alberta independent. It would begin a legal process toward a second, binding referendum.
Not everyone sees it his way
Strickland’s post struck a nerve. Plenty of people agreed with him about downtown, and some used it to take shots at city council. A few replies turned ugly, aiming at immigrants instead of the drug crisis he was describing.
But a reply thread isn’t the whole picture.
For a lot of people, Edmonton is a city they love and a city they’re choosing. It’s one of the fastest-growing major cities in Canada, drawing newcomers from across the country with affordable homes, good jobs and room to raise a family. People who live here talk about the river valley in their backyard, summers packed with festivals, a hockey team that’s made back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, and neighbourhoods like Old Strathcona and 124 Street that have their own personality.
Edmontonians also feel safer than they did a year ago. In the police service’s latest annual survey, the share of residents who said they feel safe walking alone after dark rose to 70%.
And outside the city, Edmonton’s reputation is on the rise. Last year, one of the world’s biggest travel guides put it on a list of the top 10 cities on the planet.
What he got right
Public drug use, homelessness and social disorder remain serious concerns in parts of downtown Edmonton, Chinatown and McCauley.
Public drug use and encampments were the top concerns Edmontonians named in the Edmonton Police Service’s latest annual report.
Edmonton isn’t alone. Every major Canadian city is dealing with the same drug crisis. But it’s real here.
What he got wrong
“Zero police” doesn’t hold up.
Edmonton police run dedicated beat teams in Chinatown and McCauley, just east of downtown. In one two-week stretch this spring, those teams made 17 arrests, issued 61 bylaw tickets and had more than 175 interactions with people on the street.
Some numbers are moving the right way. From mid-March to early April this year, compared with the same weeks in 2025, police reported in central Edmonton:
Disorder: down 13%
Non-violent crime: down 3.5%
Violent crime: down 1.2%
Across the whole city, Edmonton’s Crime Severity Index fell to 107 in 2025, lower than any of the five years before COVID. Citywide social disorder reports dropped nearly 10% from 2024 to 2025.
It’s not all good news. Edmonton’s total crime rate went up in 2025 after two years of decline. Downtown isn’t fixed. But it isn’t lawless, either.
Lonely Planet named Edmonton one of the world’s top cities
Edmonton got a very different review from Lonely Planet.
The travel publisher named Edmonton one of its top 10 cities to visit in its Best in Travel 2025 list, pointing to the city’s festivals, food scene, Indigenous culture and river valley.
Edmonton calls itself Canada’s Festival City, with more than 50 festivals a year, including the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival and the Edmonton Folk Music Festival.
But the river valley is what sets it apart.
The river valley
A short walk south of downtown, the North Saskatchewan River valley runs straight through the middle of the city. It’s North America’s largest stretch of urban parkland, about 22 times the size of New York’s Central Park, with wooded trails, pedestrian bridges and green space below the downtown skyline.
Right now, in mid-October, the trees are gold and orange.
The Legislature grounds, where Strickland hopes to attend Saturday’s rally, overlook that same valley.
Other American celebrities have praised Edmonton
Strickland isn’t the first big-name American to weigh in on Edmonton this year.
In September, John Cena came to town for Edmonton Expo and praised two downtown coffee shops on 104 Street, Fawkes Café & Bakery and Credo Coffee. Cena judges coffee shops by their flat whites, and both passed. “I got two fantastic flat whites today,” he told the crowd.
In March, Shaquille O’Neal was in the area for an appearance with The Brick, the furniture chain founded in Edmonton, and was spotted at Mazati Lounge in Sherwood Park. “The town was very hospitable,” he said.
Neither was reviewing public safety, and their visits don’t cancel out what Strickland saw. But Cena spent time downtown too, and he came away talking about its local businesses.
Downtown is changing
The core Strickland walked through is also seeing a lot of new investment.
O-day’min Park, known during construction as Warehouse Park, opened last November on former parking lots between 106 and 108 streets off Jasper Avenue. The $48.6-million park has a toboggan hill, fire pits, an off-leash dog area, heated washrooms, and a court that becomes an ice rink in winter. As many as 1,800 new homes are planned nearby.
Rogers Place and the Ice District, where Strickland will be on Saturday, were built on old rail yards and surface lots. They now anchor one of the busiest entertainment districts in the country.
Edmonton has also grown fast in recent years, while housing stays far cheaper than in many other major Canadian cities. In September, the average home sold for about $466,000, roughly $200,000 below the national average.
His Edmonton visit isn’t over
Strickland’s own posts show how quickly his impression of Edmonton changed. On Tuesday, he defended the city against people calling it dangerous. By Wednesday morning, he was calling downtown a “trash can.”
He’ll be at Rogers Place on Saturday, and he’s said he’ll try to make the separatist rally at the Legislature that afternoon. Whether he gets there is another question.
If he has some time to explore before he leaves, the river valley is only a short walk from downtown.
Sources
Sean Strickland on X
Edmonton Police Service: Safer Edmonton update, May 8, 2026
Explore Edmonton: Top 10 reasons to visit Edmonton, a top 10 city
City of Edmonton: Warehouse Park
City of Edmonton: River Valley
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