American tennis star Taylor Fritz has been forced to deny purposefully liking homophobic posts on social media after appearing to endorse a UFC fighter’s rant about Gay Pride Month.

Fans were shocked to discover that Fritz, the current world No 10, had liked an offensive conversation about homosexuality involving former UFC Middleweight champion Sean Strickland on X last week.

Strickland first posted: ‘How did the gays get an entire f****ng month lmao. Could you picture [George] Washington seeing pride month… “is this to honor the war of independence? The men who died”.

‘Ummm no actually there is a day for that… it’s ummm actually to honor two dudes f****ng…. lmao!!!’

Taylor Fritz (left) has been forced to deny purposefully liking homophobic posts on social media after appearing to endorse a Gay Pride rant by UFC fighter Sean Strickland (right)

Fans were shocked to discover Fritz had liked an offensive conversation about homosexuality involving former UFC Middleweight champion Strickland

But the US tennis star has taken to social media to claim he did not purposefully like the post

Fritz says he was scrolling through Strickland’s account on X when he accidentally did so

American entrepreneur and author Nima Yamini then replied: ‘If the founding fathers would wake up. They’d press the reset button.’

Fritz’s X account later showed that he had liked Yamini’s response to Strickland’s homophobic rant, which sparked outrage amongst fans.

But on Tuesday, the three-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist took to social media to claim he did not do so on purpose – insisting he accidentally liked the post while scrolling through Strickland’s account. 

‘Holy s**t I just got sent this and had a heart attack,’ Fritz quoted a post showing he had liked Yamini’s message. ‘I DEFINITELY didn’t purposefully like this, I was looking at Stricklands profile a couple days ago cause of all the news he was in while in Vegas. 

‘I had to of accidentally liked that while scrolling the replies but wow just want to make it clear for anyone that doesn’t know me i absolutely don’t stand for any of this and if u we’re to look at my likes it’s either all gaming/tennis things I would NEVER do that on purpose’.

Strickland, who lost his UFC Middleweight title in a defeat to Dricus Du Plessis last month, has landed himself in hot water with the LGBTQ+ community on a number of occasions.

Strickland has landed himself in hot water with the LGBTQ+ community on several occasions

The 32-year-old previously sparked controversy by claiming he wouldn’t want to have a gay son, before unloading on a reporter for quizzing him on those comments.

‘Let me ask you something, are you gay?’ he replied to the reporter. ‘No, are you gay? Well no I’m asking you, this is a part of it, are you a gay man? Ok, if you had a son and he was gay, you’d be like oh, man, you don’t want a grandkid?

‘Oh, man, well, dude you’re a weak f****** man, dude. You’re part of the f****** problem.’