If you’ve been training BJJ for a while, you know how things can sometimes get heated during training. Stuff can turn emotional, even physical.
Such was the case when the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion Orlando Sanchez got into a physical altercation with Sean Strickland, a UFC veteran, during a recent sparring session.

Sanchez told Flograppling about the backstory of the incident:

“I wasn’t helping him train for the fight. I didn’t know who he was. We were in the gym, goofing around and he heard that I was a BJJ world and he was talking some sh*t about Jiu-Jitsu and he literally came up to me and told “I didn’t care who you are but I’m gonna beat the sh*t out of you.”. So we got in the cage and grappled. It was nothing malicious. I just got in there and gave him a little tug on the arm. Didn’t injure him.  I had to take care of business because of what he said to me before.”

“Many people also reached out to me telling me that Strickland was a bully in the gym and even KO’d someone at RVCA two days before.”

“For all those that insulted me, you should apologize to me because i was actually defending Jiu-Jitsu.”

While they were wrestling, as a part of their sparring session, the two connected with a collar tie. At one point, Strickland went to grab an Underhook, to which Sanchez responded by grabbing an Overhook – twisting towards the inside, practically applying the Mir Lock submission technique.
Sean Strickland responded to this by shouting:

“Oh motherf****!”, slapping Sanchez in the face and kicking him in the chest. Sanchez, seemingly genuinely concerned for what’s happened, asked Strickland what the problem was, to which he responded: “It’s a d*ck move!”
“It’s only grappling”, Sanchez said in reply – after which almost a whole minute of arguing ensued.

The attempt at sparring again afterwards didn’t go too well. Strickland was still visibly angry with the standing Mir Lock that Sanchez applied, and he left the cage quickly.
Orlando Sanchez is a BJJ champion, who won a gold in the ADCC and who also runs a number of Gracie Barra gyms.  Strickland has an  up and coming fight against Urijah Hall, which is to happen in July.

Watch the physical altercation between the two here: