Alex
Polizzi believes Sean
Strickland’s intentions are to always pull his teammates up,
even though the UFC fighter might appear a bit harsh at times.
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Polizzi has been promoted to the main event spot at
PFL 2 opposite Impa
Kasanganay at The Theatre at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas on
Friday after Phil Davis
was forced out of the originally scheduled headliner against
Rob
Wilkinson. Going into matchup, Polizzi is putting in work with
the likes of
UFC veterans Chris
Curtis and Sean
Strickland at the
Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas.
Never very far from the headlines, Strickland recently generated
more controversy by putting a beating on streamer Sneako during a sparring
session. While many believe Strickland could have gone easier on
the untrained streamer, Polizzi doesn’t have an issue considering
it was consensual.
“It’s kind of what you said, a lot of fighters want to, not all are
gonna do it,” Polizzi said in an interview with The AllStar. “But that’s the thing, Sean’s
gonna do Sean. And that’s always been his thing, whether you react
well to it or not, that’s where he is. He stands by what he says
and he stands by what he does…He’s just a solid dude… Look as far
as opinions on beating up streamers, as long as it’s consensual, I
say go for it. He put on gloves, he stepped to Sean, that’s all
right with me.”
Strickland is known for his love of sparring and also amping it up
with his signature in-cage chatter. According to Polizzi, while
Strickland may be seen cursing at his sparring partners on some
occasions, the former UFC champ is mostly trying to motivate his
teammates.
“I think sometimes online you’ll get the Sean yelling, calling the
people who he is sparring with various genitalia and whatever,”
Polizzi said. “That’s not as helpful, but I mean at the same time
that’s Sean’s way of motivating you, trying to get a rise out of
you because maybe he feels like the energy level is a little low.
And he’s trying to pick you up. And as far as talking outside of
just general insults or, ‘Come on, let’s go, let’s go.’ Yeah, that
helps. If you watch any other sport where there’s coaches and
teammates going on and you can hear them. Yeah, you wanna stay
stuff, you wanna be moving and that’s the thing.
“Granted, it’s contextual depending on who Sean is beating the ass
off at the time, but I think when we’re sparring as a team, he
wants to help bring his team up. Because as I said before, it’s a
team sport. If he helps me become a better fighter, then I’m a
better fighter to help make him a better fighter. Yeah, I mean it
can be a little bit much for some people but maybe that’s just
getting used to Sean’s ‘Seaning.’”