Mansur Abdul Malik Reveals How Sean Strickland Has Helped Him be a Better Man
UFC prospect Mansur Abdul Malik has spoken about the influence that Sean Strickland has had on his career and life.
One thing we all know to be true about Sean Strickland is that he’s a pretty controversial figure. While he was the UFC middleweight champion for a brief spell, the majority of mixed martial arts fans know him for what he tends online, in interviews and during press conferences. In short, he doesn’t really abide by the rules.
One thing about Sean Strickland, though, is that he seems to have a solid reputation amongst those who he has trained with and, to an extent, sparred with. He’s a teammate who tends to look out for his own, and although he still has plenty of haters to speak of, he also knows what it means to be loyal to his team.
In a recent podcast appearance, Mansur Abdul Malik became the latest fighter to praise Sean Strickland.
Mansur Abdul Malik on Sean Strickland’s influence
“Like, what people might see on the internet or whatever is not anything. If anything, he might highlight it in a way that gains a certain amount of attention and in a funny way, but man, he’s insightful. He has given me so much knowledge, not even just in fighting but as a man, and it’s benefited me in so many beautiful ways.
“He’s actually really, really, really, really, really, really giving. Like, if you ask him, ‘All right, I want to train at this time,’ he’s there before you’re there. Like, he’s the one, man. He’s the guy. And he’s honestly a very, very, very good role model and a very good man too.”
“It’s true though. Sean’s not going to tell you what he’s going to do. He does it by his actions, he shows you. And I think that’s very important for people to understand what makes him a good teammate. You know, you see him on TV or you see him beating up streamers. That’s all for us, that’s all for fun and games.
“But when you talk about a guy—when you earn that right of passage as being a teammate—he’ll tell us, guys will come into the gym like, ‘Hey, this guy is not our teammate. He’s just here to train or he’s just here to use us. We should all be trying to kill this motherf***er.’ And dudes would be like, ‘All right, so we all know the vibe.’”
