The gloves are off — at least verbally — between UFC champ Sean Strickland and MMA legend Dan Henderson. The two former training partners are now clashing over why Strickland’s run at Team Quest came to an abrupt end, and both men are telling very different stories.
In a recent appearance on Mike Perry’s Overdogs Podcast, Henderson didn’t mince words. He said Strickland wore out his welcome at Team Quest due to relentless trash talk — not just in the gym, but publicly online.
“You know, he got in little argument matches with some of the guys that thought he was going too hard,” Henderson said. “Then he would go online and talk shit about him and he did it a little bit too much… When you send it out to everybody to hear all that shit, it’s just disrespectful for your training partners… He just did it too many times, I warned him a bunch, and then finally just said, ‘Hey dude, you’ve got to go.’”
Henderson admitted Strickland was a hard-nosed and dedicated training partner, saying, “I enjoyed having him in there and liked having a guy that is in there that goes hard.” But according to Henderson, the disrespect eventually outweighed the value.
Strickland wasn’t having it. Responding directly on the Overdogs Instagram page, the outspoken former champ fired back.
“None of this is true,” Strickland wrote. “I was Dan’s main training partner for his last fight. He retired, the fight team fell off and when it was time to renew my membership I left… but he is correct I would make fun of the fight team constantly.”
Strickland, who has built a reputation for stirring controversy both inside and outside the cage, didn’t hold back about his time at Team Quest — especially when it came to teammates skipping sparring.
“They would do yoga and skip sparring lol [Keith Berry] I’m talking about you haha funny thing is we’re both at [Xtreme Couture] and spar regularly now.”
Even while admitting to “massive gym blowups,” Strickland chalked them up to frustration over teammates prioritizing stretching over striking.
“No bro, I lost it on multiple occasions when it was sparring day and 90 percent of the fight team was doing yoga skipping pro practice haha,” he replied in another Instagram comment.
Despite the tension, Strickland still made sure to give Henderson credit where it’s due.
“Dan is the man though,” he wrote. “And if he didn’t retire and seen what I seen with most the guys skipping class to go do yoga he would have been throwing H bombs, too.”
