Sean Strickland has been told by one of MMA’s most divisive figures that he is ‘not a real martial artist’ for his hard sparring with beginner celebrities.
Strickland is a former middleweight world champion with wins over the likes of Israel Adesanya and Paulo Costa. But despite having a dangerous skillset, he has no problem utilizing all of his tools to brutalize celebrities when they come to the Xtreme Couture gym to film videos or streams.
Strickland infamously battered and bloodied streamer Sneako at the gym, ignoring multiple towel throws in an effort to put the creator down. And he did the exact same to YouTuber Nick Nayersina a year later, beating him perhaps even more brutally after months of callouts.
- Who is Sean Strickland? Get to know the controversial former UFC Middleweight champion
Sean Strickland seems to enjoy beating up beginners in sparring
Sean Strickland, despite being a trained UFC championship-level fighter, has no problem using his skills to remind beginners just how much of a skill chasm there is between civilians and fighters. He is infamous for beating up on celebrities such as Sneako and Nick Nayersina.
In February of 2024, while Sneako was visiting the Las Vegas gym, Strickland invited him in for a sparring session. He proceeded to beat the brakes off the streamer, who captured it all for viral clips on his live broadcast.
A year later, YouTuber Nick Nayersina jokingly called Strickland out for a fight of his own, and was given it in brutal fashion. He was battered from pillar to post and forced to quit, with many fans noting that it’s bizarre for Strickland to enjoy this bullying behavior so much.
What makes Strickland’s behavior all the more comical is that he developed a reputation for being someone who is always on and always spars like it’s a fight. That’s unless you catch footage of him with the likes of Alex Pereira, with whom he is happy to lightly spar.
Dillon Danis slams Sean Strickland as ‘not a real martial artist’
One man who is unimpressed by Strickland’s carry on is the divisive former Bellator star Dillon Danis. A black belt in jiu-jitsu, he recently took on YouTuber Wade Plemons in a sparring session where he managed to show the levels in their skills without viciously hurting him.
And Danis feels it is indicative of a poor martial artist to behave that way with beginners, asking Plemons: “What do I have to prove me going in there and knocking you out? Look at Strickland, a UFC champion saying ‘yeah I’m going to go and hurt somebody’. That’s not a real martial artist.”
Danis hasn’t had the chance to compete in MMA at all over the past six years, but he has stayed training. Now, he returns on a Misfits Boxing event, where he will take on Warren Spencer inside the ring, but under full professional MMA rules.