Lightweight standout ‘King’ Bobby Green says he used to put it on current middleweight champ Sean Strickland during their sparring sessions back in the day.
On Saturday night, Green makes his return to the Octagon for a main event clash with No. 10 ranked contender Grant Dawson. Ahead of their highly anticipated scrap inside The APEX in Las Vegas, Green made an appearance on the JAXXON podcast where he claims to have dog-walked 185-pound champ Sean Strickland on more than one occasion whilst sparring.
“Shout out to Strickland. A little backstory, my dad, I got a little white dad, he’s a black belt. He got his black belt from Sean’s coach,” Green said. “So, out of respect, because Sean was trying to have his MMA career go, we must have been 21, 22, he would call me to go over and spar with Sean. Sean was fighting at 185, I’m a 155’er. But, I would beat the dog sh*t out of him. Ask him to this day, he’ll say Bobby Green is a problem.”
Bobby Green Looks to Break into the Lightweight Top 10 at UFC Vegas 80
After going 2-3 in his previous five, Bobby Green scored an impressive buzzer-beating submission against former interim lightweight world champion Tony Ferguson in his last outing. Should ‘King’ deliver an impressive showing and earn his second-straight victory at UFC Vegas 80, he could find himself thrust into the lightweight division’s top 10.
Meanwhile, middleweight champ Sean Strickland is back in the gym preparing for his first title defense after delivering a picture-perfect performance against former two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 last month. No official announcements have been made, but welterweight contender Belal Muhammad previously claimed that he was offered a championship clash with Strickland.
‘Tarzan’ could also find himself once again matched up with Israel Adesanya, or the man many believe is next in line, Dricus Du Plessis.
Who would you like to see Strickland square off against in his first UFC title defense?