Sean Strickland is no stranger to gym drama.
The former UFC middleweight champion is back in the headlines this week courtesy of Luke Rockhold, who knows a thing or two about wearing gold at 185 pounds. Rockhold claims Strickland was wreaking havoc during a previous visit to RVCA in Costa Mesa.
“He’s just that guy that doesn’t care,” Rockhold told 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*** is this guy?’ I was so hungover, so annoyed, I was like, ‘F***, I’m going to get in a spar with this guy, I can’t even take it.’ But I had seen him… he hurt a guy in the gym. He hurt him with a head kick.”
Strickland once bragged about breaking “multiple noses” during sparring.
“With like 30 seconds left, he wobbled him,” Rockhold continued. “And [the coach] was like, ‘Keep going, finish out 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****** man and try to finish the round rather than just go back to the well and knock him out.”
Rockhold was booked to fight Strickland at UFC 268 until he got injured.
The 39 year-old Rockhold parted ways with UFC after three straight losses, then tried his hand at bareknuckle boxing but ended up getting his teeth smashed to pieces. As for Strickland, 32, he’s coming off a split decision loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297.
As of this writing, both fighters remain unbooked.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
