Sean Strickland is being told by fans that he should ‘take notes’ on how to spar with beginners after a fellow UFC champion showed how it’s done.
Former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley took on poker player and YouTuber Frankie C in a crossover of their skills. He first tried out a high stakes poker game, before taking the social media star into the cage for three rounds of sparring.
The situation mirrored a recent video where YouTuber Nick Nayersina, following in the footsteps of streamer Sneako, sparred Strickland. Both were brutalized by the former middleweight champion, who has earned a reputation as something of a gym bully.
- Who is Sean Strickland? Get to know the controversial former UFC Middleweight champion
Sean O’Malley’s merciful spar has fans telling Sean Strickland to ‘take notes’
For a new YouTube video on his ‘Suga Sean’ channel ahead of his UFC 316 rematch with Merab Dvalishvili, Sean O’Malley faced off with pro poker player ‘Frankie C’ in a sparring session. The pair competed over three rounds of three minutes with Tim Welch overseeing it all.
O’Malley clearly put pressure on the novice, and noted that he was trying to make him feel pain. But he clearly pulled punches and allowed him to get rounds in and build confidence in his toughness before smashing him with a body kick.
It’s a different approach to Strickland, who prefers to let these influencers know just how vicious that sparring can be with a UFC champion. He obliterated Nayersina quickly, and famously bloodied and battered Sneako, refusing to accept multiple towels being thrown in.
Fans were generally more impressed with the bantamweight’s approach, with one writing on X: “Huge difference between Suga Sean sparring non fighters and Sean Strickland sparring non fighters.” Another added: “This sparring makes Stricklands sparring against YouTubers look so much more unhinged.”
Another fan wrote: “Looks like Sean wasn’t throwing too hard to the head at all, other Sean should take notes.”
Sean Strickland’s philosophy on bullying influencers in sparring explained
Sean Strickland has explained why he chooses to be so vicious with influencers, telling Nayersina in advance to expect a beating. He doesn’t believe in coddling someone who chooses to try out the sport by taking on a UFC champion level athlete.
“I didn’t say, ‘Hey, influencer come and spar me,’” Strickland explained in a video on his Instagram. “I’ve been seeing this guy… So what you did you f—ed some p—star and got famous so you said ‘I’ll go get f—ed up by a UFC fighter and get more famous.
“I don’t know this motherf—er, but you apparently do know me because you’ve been hitting me up for f—ing months to spar. So this f—ing guy goes and spars with Mitch, he’s going through friends of friends and I keep getting DM’d.
“I’m not knocking you dude, what are you famous for? You like the influencer life and want to be f—ing famous – this is who you are.”