The world of mixed martial arts is quite something. Earlier today, Sean Strickland detailed a chance encounter he had with Aspen Ladd’s fiance/coach Jim West.
For those unaware, Strickland condemned Rose Namajunas’ and Aspen Ladd’s partners/coaches for inappropriate relationships they each had considering they both started working with them when they were underage. On a twitter account that has since been suspended Strickland shared:
This first tweet is addressing the now infamous incident in which West publicly berated Ladd in between rounds for which he subsequently had to issue a public apology.
Strickland doubled down on it adding:
And this wasn’t the only time Strickland called out West.
Fast forward to earlier today when Strickland says he was confronted by Jim West – but it was more amicable than Strickland anticipated.
In a video he posted on his social media he detailed:
“I wish it just happened to me. Right. I’m leaving the P.I.. This guy walks up to me, goes, “Hello, Sean. My name is Jim West.” And I’m thinking, Oh, man, me and this dude are about to scrap in front of the P.I. and I start getting excited. But then he’s really f*cking cool to me, and I’m like, Oh, well, now this is awkward because I thought, we’re going to f*cking fight anyways.”
“So he comes up to me, he’s like, “Well, Sean, you know, I heard what you said, and I was a former detective.” Like, that means f*ck anything, you shady bastard. “I was a former detective and I did not know, Aspen Ladd until she was 18. ” And I’m like, Yeah, I know dude I’m not going to get into this, but like it’s f*cking questionable and I’m still going to f**king talk s*it because it needs to happen.”
“And then I go have a good one and I walk away anyways. But now, since I was reminded of the situation. Jim West. She was training at your gym at 14 or 15 years old, right. We can say this is true. And at some point she turned 18 and this girl you had no idea existed, she turned 18.”
“And you’re like, you know what? Now I’m going to put my penis in her and make her my girlfriend. Now, that sounds like grooming to me. But again, you also had no idea who she was, and she just put out really f*cking fast. So, I mean, sounds like grooming, but who knows?”
And Strickland isn’t wrong. We did a deep dive on this exact topic and unearthed the following:
- Ladd claims she started training at MMA Gold when she was 15
- MMAGold co-founder claimed Ladd started training with them when she was 17 in a different interview.
- Jim West made a post on his own social media- claiming that he’s worked with Ladd as far back as 2011 (she trained BJJ for a couple of years prior to starting MMA). Ladd would’ve been 16 in 2011.
- West shared a picture of Ladd receiving her BJJ purple belt from him in 2014.
West is 44 years old – and he was also married when he started MMAGold. It’s unclear when his romantic relationship with Ladd started – but we do know for a fact he had met her when she was underage and that he’s been with her for a number of years.
According to his own account he was married in 2005. He has a one child from this marriage born in around 2010.
Regardless, it’s very interesting he would try and confront Strickland regardless of the mountain of social media evidence that does in fact disprove his version of the truth. One thing he didn’t lie about is that he was a member of Law Enforcement previously. He’s also quite sensitive about his age and we only found his age after hours of investigative reporting.