Sean Strickland is a former UFC middleweight champion. Photo: Reproduction/strickland_mma_
About to face Dricus du Plessis for the second time with the middleweight title at stake in UFC 312, Sean Strickland is still the target of criticism from others involved in the sport. On the one hand, his controversial statements often generate disaffection, as in the case of newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph', this time his training methods were questioned. For Matt Brown, who competed in the UFC for 15 years, the aggressive way of carrying out training sessions sparring of the American has hampered his development as a fighter.
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“The problem of sparring The thing is, a lot of people talk about brain damage and stuff like that. I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people say. But you don’t evolve as much. You’re not adding little skills and developing them,” the veteran said. Espaitec's 'The Fighter vs. The Writer', this Friday (7).
Known for training intensely, to the point of knocking out training partners on some occasions, Sean Strickland doesn't seem to mind changing his approach to training. Still, the American has one of the most complex defensive systems in the entire squad.
More footage of the spar pic.twitter.com/JMXh8d3sL9
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Brown, who also works as a coach, used one of his athletes as an example to validate his argument.
“I have a guy who’s going to fight soon and today we just worked on his jab and stepping out because he’s going to fight a southpaw. So guys were sparring him, about 50 or 60 percent, and his only job was to throw a punch and step out. When he goes back to training, he’ll have a much better jab and hopefully, if what we did worked, he’ll step out better and all the other stuff will open up better. I don’t really see Strickland doing that because he’s fighting all the time.”
Matt Brown believes Strickland's jab will be very important
M. Brown retired in 2023. (Photo: Reproduction Twitter ufcnews)
Despite the criticism, Matt Brown made it clear that the former middleweight champion (up to 83,9 kg) has the full capacity to regain the title this Saturday (8) due to the range of skills he already has, such as the jab.
“Realistically, what he needs to do is what he does well. He just has to do it. I think that’s exactly it. If I were to build a game plan for him, it would be to throw your jab, set it up, you’ve got to spread out when Dricus throws and you’ve got to keep it up long and avoid the big shots. He’s already good at that,” he concluded.
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