Dan Henderson couldn’t be any happier to see Sean Strickland as UFC middleweight champion.
‘Tarzan’ famously got a title shot last month against Israel Adesanya at UFC 293. There, Sean Strickland scored an upset win by unanimous decision, becoming champion in the process. While many were shocked to see the bout play out that way, Dan Henderson wasn’t as shocked.
‘Hendo’ discussed Sean Strickland’s championship win during a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience. There, Dan Henderson reflected on his three years of training with the newly crowned champion earlier in his career. While he liked him, not everyone did.
Eventually, Sean Strickland was removed from the gym due to issues with others. However, Dan Henderson saw the skill years ago when he was just a young man. He enjoyed sparring with him, and the legend believes that someone like ‘Tarzan’ is needed at most gyms from time to time.
“He was at my gym for like three years,” Dan Henderson stated referring to Sean Strickland on a recent edition of the Joe Rogan Experience. “Kind of had to, let him go. Yeah, he just gets too involved talking s*it about people. I liked him at the gym, I liked him there, he was a great training partner. You need at least one guy in your gym that does that and goes hard and makes everyone else go hard when they’re going against him. So, I liked it, but he just was too disrespectful to teammates and stuff.”
He continued, “This was a while ago, and I see that [it was a young Strickland]. I always rooted for him when he left, I thought he had a ton of potential. I was yelling at him to go up a weight class, because he was always trying to make 170…I saw parts of [his win over Adesanya], and he looked great.”
What do you make of these comments from Dan Henderson? Who do you want to see Sean Strickland fight next?
