Video: ‘Fat’ Sean Strickland vacations in Japan, pummels K-1 Kickboxing world champion

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight kingpin Sean Strickland is content to sit on the shelf until an opening to fight for the belt arises, but that doesn’t mean he’s staying idle.

Recently, Strickland went on vacation to Japan. While in “The Land of the Rising Sun,” Strickland received an invite to spar from Rukiya Anpo, former K-1 Super Lightweight champion. Though Anpo is significantly lighter — he fights mostly at 70 kilograms or 154 pounds — he promised to throw down with Strickland, who infamously loves a gym war.

Well, the two met up and went to battle! The clip above shows highlights of their sparring session, which was definitely more of a full-on fistfight than technical session. The duo clashed for five rounds, and Anpo found a lot of success early on with his explosive combinations and body punching. That’s a fatiguing way to box, however, and Strickland’s combination of size and pressure wore down “Demolition Man” by the latter half of the match. Their rounds ended with Strickland teeing off on his tired opponent.

“Nothing like some brain damage on vacation haha,” Strickland wrote on social media about the training session. “Yes I know I’m fat. Fuck off lol.” He also credited Anpo with being “tough as nails” in another post.

Anpo, meanwhile, posted a picture of the two afterward and showed off some bruising. There’s an open invitation for Anpo to come visit and train with Strickland in Las Vegas, but he may not be so eager. In one post, Anpo wrote (via Google Translate), “This is the hardest I’ve ever been beaten in my life.”

Will Strickland bring that same aggression to his next UFC fight? His last bout versus Paulo Costa was a solid victory, but it wasn’t nearly as electrifying as the clip above.

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