Israel Adesanya slams Sean Strickland for pulling dirty moves in sparring

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya recently took aim at Sean Strickland. He slammed Strickland for going too far during sparring sessions and hurting his teammates.

UFC middleweight top contender Sean Strickland made headlines a while back after several footages of his sparring session got spread online. The footage showed Strickland going way too far in sparring to the point that it led to several altercations.

During a grappling session with jiu-jitsu world champion Orlando Sanchez, ‘Tarzan’ even threw a punch and kick. He (accurately) claimed that Sanchez was trying to crank a submission. This led to the pair having a minor scuffle.

Israel Adesanya recently appeared on his Youtube channel with featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. The pair talked about the upcoming UFC 276 event which both Adesanya and Strickland will feature on the main card.

‘The Last Stylebender’ mentioned Strickland’s harsh behavior in sparring sessions. Adesanya talked about how Strickland didn’t hesitate to land serious damage to his sparring partner.

“Sean Strickland. He’s a bad m***erf***er. Like, literally bad. Rotten apple. But I like the guy, he’s funny and he likes to talk shit as well. And his stand-up, I’ve seen him do more damage on YouTube in sparring than in his fights. “

“Put it that way. I’ve seen his sparring footage and I would never spar with an idiot like that. I’ve hurt people in sparring before and I’m just like, ‘Shit, my bad’. Or I’ll pull back with the body shot or whatever but I’ve seen what he does. He’s got many screws loose, many screws loose.” Adesanya said.

Both Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland will feature at UFC 276 this weekend. Adesanya will headline the event against title challenger Jared Cannonier. This will be the fifth time Adesanya tried to defend his middleweight belt.

Meanwhile, Strickland will be facing Adesanya’s longtime opponent Alex Pereira. In 2016, Alex Pereira defeated Israel Adesanya via unanimous decision. In his last kickboxing match in 2017, they had a rematch and Adesanya got knocked out with a vicious left hook.