Luke Rockhold questions former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland’s sparring methods.
Strickland (28-6 MMA, 15-6 UFC) is known for going hard in sparring and Rockhold can confirm that. Rockhold, a former UFC middleweight champ himself, recalls Strickland walking into RVCA in Southern California, where he watched him aggressively spar another fighter.
“He’s that guy that just doesn’t care,” Rockhold said on the “JAXXON PODCAST.” “He’ll try to kill you. Sean Strickland walked into RVCA one time, and he was such a loud mouth idiot. I was like, ‘Who the f*ck is this guy?’ I was so hungover. I was so annoyed. I was like, ‘F*ck, I’m going to get in a spar with this guy. I can’t even take it.’ But I’d seen him, he’d hurt a guy in the gym. He hurt a guy with a head kick.
“Maybe like 30 seconds left, he wobbled him, and the coach was like, ‘Keep going, finish the round.’ Instead of what most people would do, which is try to work with him – especially when you’re on somebody else’s turf. Sean went straight back to that head kick and tried to knock him out multiple times. There’s 30 seconds left in the round, the kid’s done, show yourself as a f*cking man and step up and try to finish the round rather than just go back to the well and knock him out.”
Rockhold said he ended up sparring Strickland after and hopes to get another opportunity down the line.
“I remember we got into a little brawl for one round,” Rockhold said. “He’s tricky. He’s a little tricky guy. I went into the bathroom. I put paper towel. I wrapped it in my teeth like an old school wet mouthpiece, and I was swallowing the thing, sparring him hungover, and it was close. It was a close round. I would love to get him back out here.”
