Morning Report: Michael Bisping gives his take on ‘emotionally unstable’ Sean Strickland’s wild weekend

Sean Strickland doesn’t get along with other human beings very well.

It was a rather eventful weekend for the former UFC middleweight champion Strickland and everyone who was in Las Vegas for the jam-packed lineup of sporting festivities. The entertainment capital hosted Super Bowl LVIII, UFC Vegas 86, Dana White’s PowerSlap, and your typical Sin City shenanigans. “Tarzan” decided to get out to the PowerSlap show on Friday night, which turned out to be a confrontational experience. Who would have thought?

Strickland and musician Machine Gun Kelly had a brief encounter that saw “MGK” get called a vampire and insulted for how he dresses. This came after a sparring session earlier in the week that involved Strickland and influencer “Sneako.” The exchange inside the UFC P.I. octagon saw Strickland toy with his counterpart before he poured it on and released a heavy flurry of punches to end the spar. This caught the attention of Jake Paul, who labeled Strickland “embarrassing” and a bully. Watching this saga unfold over the weekend, Strickland’s fellow former middleweight champion Michael Bisping questioned the sparring situation.

“Sneako knew what he was getting into but does it make it right that Sean Strickland still did that?” Bisping asked on his YouTube channel. “Listen, I’ve sparred God knows how many rounds, probably thousands and thousands and thousands of rounds getting ready for many fights. Generally, even when you’re sparring another professional, it doesn’t get to that kind of situation. You’re not teeing off on another partner, a trained fighter, and trying to knock them out.

“If you’re sparring someone new, you take your time, you work with them a little bit. I understand the context here. He wanted to embarrass Sneako. He wanted to put him in his place to say, ‘Hey, you don’t deserve to belong here. What the hell are you even doing in the Performance Institute in the first place and you’ve got the balls to say you want to spar with me? Alright, alright. I’m gonna teach you a lesson.’”

Ultimately, Bisping concluded the sentiment with the mention of how a hard body shot would have done the trick on Sneako rather than pummeling away to his head as Strickland did. Strickland, however, has always been known as a notoriously aggressive sparring partner.

Despite what happened to Sneako, his fellow influencer Bryce Hall isn’t deterred as he’s since called out Strickland. That challenge was, of course, quickly accepted in only a fashion Strickland would accept by threatening murder.

As for the overall bully claims, Bisping doesn’t necessarily think it’s wrong but finds irony in them coming from Paul.

“I do agree with him to a certain extent,” Bisping said. “Jake Paul has kind of been a bully, picking fights with fighters he knows he can beat. Older guys, none boxers, so on and so forth.

“It’s hilarious. I don’t see why Sean Strickland should have to fly down to Puerto Rico. Jake Paul is often in the area, why not just swing by the gym? Let these two throw down, no cameras. Or do it in the desert. No one’s watching, ‘no man will be left alive. D*** to d***, nipple to nipple.’ No cameras, just in the desert, fight to the death like a couple of gladiators.

“It’s pathetic, but is Sean Strickland the bully? Maybe,” he continued. “What do you expect? That’s who he is. He’s very honest. He’s never tried to hide that fact. He’s a little emotionally unstable. When he saw Machine Gun Kelly, [he] threatened to punch him in the face or something like that. Machine Gun Kelly, alright, fair enough. He might be a bit of a weirdo, I don’t know. You can’t just have a problem with someone because they dress like they wanna dress. Self-expression is very, very important.”

Declined. Khamzat Chimaev bows out of UFC 300 main event sweepstakes

Odd. Sean Strickland reveals what led to viral altercation with ‘vampire’ Machine Gun Kelly

Politics. Tom Aspinall moving on from Jon Jones, Stipe Miocic: ‘I’m too risky for these guys’

Crossover. Seth Rollins says Ronda Rousey struggled with WWE schedule as would all UFC fighters: ‘They don’t have the stamina for it’

Villain. Ian Machado Garry shrugs off online drama: ‘The truth is the MMA community should be thankful’

Pass. Sean Strickland accepts Bryce Hall’s sparring challenge with a scary twist: ‘You all want to see a dead body?’

Beef. Yair Rodriguez on ‘delusional’ Ilia Topuria: ‘I would f****** like to f*** him up’

Addition. KSW signs 36-1 featherweight Julio Cesar Neves, will debut next month

Hype. Dana White reveals UFC debut in The Sphere will be a ‘love letter’ to Mexican combat sports

Mystic. Alexander Volkanovski predicts UFC 298 result, says Ilia Topuria is ‘gonna be embarrassed’

The MMA Hour.

UFC 298 Embedded.

Volkanovski vs. Topuria preview.

Garry’s UFC finishes.

Cruzing into UFC 298.

PFL vs. Bellator Fight Camp.

The beginning.

A wild Will Ferrell appears.

CCC on UFC 298.

The War Room: Volkanovski vs. Topuria.

The SBE.

On To the Next One. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee discuss the matches to make after UFC Vegas 86.

Why is In Flames so good?

Time.

Can’t wait to see it.

Would be perfect.

Fresh.

Interesting.

Pretty wild.

Lol.

Tofiq Musayev (22-5) vs. Alfie Davis (16-4-1); Bellator 302, March 22

Austin Hubbard (16-7) vs. Michal Figlak (8-1); UFC Fight Night, April 27

Terrance McKinney (15-6) vs. Esteban Ribovics (12-1); UFC Fight Night, May 11

Sean should probably just stop going to these places where all the people he hates are going to be. Pretty simple solution to the weekend we just saw. At the same time, you know everyone loves to see the drama.

Thanks for reading!

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