Exclusive: Brandon Royval reacts to Sean Strickland's "crazy" sparring with Sneako - "You could just touch him barely and win the fight"
Brandon Royval recently shared his thoughts on the viral Sean Strickland vs. Sneako sparring session.
For context, Strickland recently accepted an invitation to train with the notorious 'Red Pill' influencer at the UFC Performance Institute. During their training session, the two men stepped into a cage to get some sparring done. Despite Sneako's inexperience, Strickland decided against going easy and battered the streamer.
After Sneako absorbed several hard-hitting shots to the head, onlookers outside the cage threw in the towel, and many called for Strickland to stop. However, 'Tarzan' ignored the pleas and continued till former UFC champion Forrest Griffin stepped in to stop the relentless beatdown.
Given that Sneako was visibly shaken after sparring with Strickland, many within the MMA community slammed the former 185-pound champion for his actions.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Royval shared his two cents on the controversial sparring footage. After being asked if he had seen the video, he replied:
"I seen it. I just didn't get the point of it, really... Our sport is not like basketball, where I can just dunk on somebody and make them look stupid. It's like, you have the potential to hurt somebody... That dude didn't know how to fight at all. You could just touch him barely and win the fight and prove your point. I didn't really think he needed to lay into him the way he did."
Catch Brandon Royval's comments below (11:07):
'Raw Dawg' is set to rematch Brandon Moreno in a pivotal flyweight contest at UFC Mexico City at the Arena CDMX on Feb. 24. Royval lost their first meeting at UFC 255 via first-round knockout.
Ex-UFC star Jake Shields on the Sean Strickland vs. Sneako sparring session
Former UFC fighter and jiu-jitsu savant Jake Shields recently weighed in on Sean Strickland dominating Sneako during their sparring session at the UFC PI.
Shields revealed that he knew Sneako planned to face 'Tarzan' and disclosed that he even discouraged the streamer from doing so. However, he lauded the 25-year-old for showing heart and not backing down from the challenge.
In a recent X post, Shields revealed that Sneako wanted to resume training immediately instead of taking a 30-minute break despite taking a lot of damage during the session. Shields wrote:
"This morning, I went to train @sneako, and he informed me he was gonna spar with Sean Strickland. I told him that was a bad idea, but he had already committed, and all a man has is his word. Strickland beat Sneako senseless, but he never quit and never complained."
He continued:
"I told him to take 30 min to recover, but he wanted to start our workout right away while still covered in blood. I don't know him well, but he showed he has a massive heart."