Sean Strickland lashed out and accused Orlando Sanchez of a ‘dirty move’ during a recent training session.
Things got heated at the RVCA training center recently when UFC fighter Sean Strickland grappled with ADCC champ Orlando Sanchez.
After Sanchez attempted a standing armbar, Strickland broke away and hit Sanchez with a spinning chop and then a front kick. The pair then argued about the legality of the move and the appropriateness of attempting it during a training session.
The argument, which included Strickland calling the move ‘dirty’ and a ‘dick move’, ended with the fighter leaving the cage and cautioning Sanchez not to ‘run his mouth’. During the argument Strickland also harangued Sanchez for trying to cause damage when he has an important fight coming up — his first ever UFC main event, versus Uriah Hall.
Sanchez recently spoke to FloGrappling about the incident. He shared some background information about the lead up to the confrontation and also continued to defend the move he tried to pull off on Strickland.
“I’d never met him before in my life,” said Sanchez (ht bjpenn). “I had no clue who he was, who he is, nothing. Everybody thinks it was like a training camp video where I was his training partner. This guy just kept talking sh*t. He just kept running his mouth. He said he’d do some wrestling rounds, so coach [Jason Parillo] was like ‘Do a round with Orlando!’ He started talking stupid stuff about Jiu-Jitsu and goes ‘regardless of who you are or what you’ve done, I’m still going to beat you up.’ It didn’t bother me but I was like is he talking to me?”
Sanchez further claimed that he didn’t know Strickland was preparing for the biggest fight of his life.
“He’s not my training partner, he was some guy saying he was going to beat my ass,” he said. “It was nothing to hurt him, those that know me know I wouldn’t intentionally hurt a training partner. It’s not a dirty move, if you’re cranking it all the way up and not letting go then okay. I knew how far I pushed it, it went about two inches to wake him up and he had his reaction, but literally, right after the video, he apologized. I don’t hold anything though.”
“It’s all good, it’s all love,” continued Sanchez. “You can’t expect to say ‘I’m going to beat you up’ and not expect anything. I got hundreds of messages saying [Strickland] is a bully and goes around beating people up [in the gym].”
Strickland has also spoken out about the viral incident. In a video message he claimed some responsibility for what went down. In that post he also declared how much he wanted to beat up people (in front of their kids, if possible) who had shared their opinions on the incident over the internet.