'He was never this crazy, psychotic, and violent' - Michael Bisping reacts to Sean Strickland knocking out his sparring partner

Michael Bisping (left), Sean Strickland (right) [Image Courtesy: @mikebisping via Instagram]

Sean Strickland has gained quite the notoriety for his impressive performances inside the cage and his outlandish comments outside of it. He now appears to be earning a reputation as someone with whom you wouldn’t want to train.

View this post on Instagram

Instagram Post

The free-swinging brawler has recently been receiving heat from the MMA community for knocking out a sparring partner with a nasty head kick.

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping also weighed in on the situation. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Bisping explained that Strickland was different when he trained with him back in the day:

"[Sean Strickland] was never like this crazy, psychotic, violent sparring partner when I sparred with him. And that wasn't his reputation in the gym. There would be a bunch of people on the mats and every round you go with a different training partner, and he was never known [to be] that guy, but certainly that seems to be the reputation now, so who knows. I mean, he's really doing well in the UFC, he's on a great win streak so maybe it's because he's found another side of him."

Watch Michael Bisping talk about his experience training with Sean Strickland below (discussion starts at 28:20):

Marvin Vettori is the only UFC fighter Sean Strickland trains with

Sean Strickland recently revealed that Marvin Vettori was the only UFC fighter to spar with him in practice. In a recent Twitter post, Strickland hailed the Italian while taking aim at other fighters in the promotion:

"I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret... A lot of UFC fighters SUCK and usually their kinda p*****s who just like to beat up the lower level pros and have a ufc logo on them. Most of them won't spar me... Marvin Vettori is the only UFC fighter I train with lmao we go hard!"

I'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret... A lot of UFC fighters SUCK and usually their kinda pussies who just like to beat up the lower level pros and have a ufc logo on them. Most of them won't spar me.. @MarvinVettori is the only ufc fighter I train with lmao we go hard!

Vettori also revealed in an interview with RT Sports MMA that he has been training with Strickland for years and the two get along well. Vettori explained that it is very hard to find good sparring partners like 'Tarzan' in the UFC.

Watch Marvin Vettori talk about his relationship with Sean Strickland below (starts at 6:00):