Sean Strickland has a habit of going all out in his sparring sessions. Be it a former K1 kickboxing world champion, or a Navy SEAL, ‘Tarzan’ has often put a beat down while sparring. Needless to say, the fighting community didn’t appreciate this habit of his as the sparring videos went viral on social media. And the trend continued as yet another sparring video showed the former middleweight champion opting for hard sparring. 

MMA Uncensored’s X account shared the video, with the caption reading, “Sean Strickland headkick KO.” Exactly like the caption suggested, Strickland could be seen throwing kicks and fists that seemed to have damaged his sparring partner. A voice in the background kept saying, “Hey! Slow down, slow down. Wait, I’m running out.” 

Sparring is supposed to let a fighter practice his moves in a controlled environment while stimulating the feelings of a real fight. But ‘Tarzan’ kept pressing his partner with his powerful strikes.

After a while, Strickland’s sparring partner wobbled a bit with his guard down. That was when the Californian fighter sent a kick to the head. Needless to say, it sent his sparring partner to the shadow realm. 

As soon as the video surfaced on social media, fight fans expressed their thoughts in the comments section. Let’s see what the fighting community had to say. 

Sean Strickland receives thrashing for going too hard in sparring

Standing against hard sparring, one fan branded Sean Strickland as a bully. The comment read, “Strickland is well known to be a sparring bully.” Another fan wrote, “dude is just a bit of a –ck when it comes to safe sparring.” A few fans expressed their rage at the former UFC middleweight champion for taking on a less skilled fighter. One fan commented, “This is bulls–t honestly. He’s taking liberties with a guy far less skilled than him and he knows it.” A few fans even pointed out that it was a completely unprofessional act. One comment read, “Why spar this hard? This is a partner not your opponent that you’re competing against. If it was an accident and the guy got caught then ok but Strickland was literally trying to take the guy out. Unprofessional af.”

Not too long ago, Strickland refused to spar with Alex Pereira. He claimed that if he took him on for a sparring session, Pereira would knock him out. Well, the LHW champ’s infamous left hook seemed to have scared Strickland. Some fans decided to reflect on this and wrote, “why doesnt he try spar pereira like that?” Another fan wrote, “if only he did that against alex in sparring.” 

While the Californian dominated the sparring grounds, he failed to impress the fans during his fight against Paulo Costa at UFC 302. The fight did not leave spectators on the edge of their seats. One fan wrote, “If he only did that in the cage, then he’d be spectacular.” Meanwhile, another comment read, “Bro always be bullying people in sparring with these crazy moves, but never uses it in the octagon…”

What do you think of Strickland’s sparring habits? Do you think heavy sparring should become the norm in MMA gyms? Drop down to the comments below and keep the conversation flowing.