UFC star Sean Strickland has explained that he warned his sparring partner they would be going hell for leather before he landed a headkick KO that went viral on social media.
Strickland was in California to sail when he stopped by a local gym to spar with a kickboxer, and he brutally stopped him late in the session.
The video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times across social media, but Strickland says the only reason it was filmed was that his opponent's coach wanted footage.
And he has insisted that he warned the fighter about his plan to go 100 per cent ahead of the session, telling him "we're not friends".
"The story behind that was he was a really cool Japanese guy, a kickboxer," Strickland told Mirror Fighting in an exclusive chat.
"I go to San Diego to sail, I've got this old f***ing sail boat I'm surprised hasn't sunk yet, and I pretty much have an open invitation that I want to fight somebody.
"I didn't say spar, I didn't say 'lightly,' I said I wanted to fight somebody.
"I get the call from somebody who says 'my boy is in town, he has a kickboxing match, go spar him.'
"So I say 'alright, f*** it,' but before we start I let him know 'I'm not your friend, I'm not here to be your f***ing buddy, I'm here to hurt you - f*** you up'."
Strickland, who takes on Jack Hermansson this weekend at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, says it was then that the cameras came out.
First, it was the kickboxer's coach, which made the No.7-ranked UFC middleweight tell his brother to make sure that he had his own footage.
From there, the footage speaks for itself, but he insists that there was nothing untoward.
"And then his coach pulls out a camera," he continued. "So if that's what we're doing I had my brother pull out his camera.
"So I just beat the f*** out of him, but it wasn't sneaky, I didn't lie to him, I didn't hide my video camera.
"His coach started filming, I told my brother to film and I pretty much told him 'I'm here to f*** you up'."
Strickland had no idea that the video would cause the ruckus that it did, saying he has so much video of sparring that shows him in a good and bad light.
He even admits he was dropped in sparring for this weekend's fight with Hermansson, and would have no problem with any footage being released.
Are you a fan of Sean Strickland, or do you think his antics are too much? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"It was just that I had made a new Instagram account," he explained. "I have so many videos of me knocking f***ing professional fighters out, you know?
"I don't post videos of me hurting my friends, if you're a main training partner of mine and I've knocked you out, that's never seeing the light of day.
"But if you're just some random guy that shows up to the gym and I put you out, yeah I'll post it I don't care.
"But I live by the sword and die by the sword, a couple of weeks ago Maxim Grishin dropped me.
"He's a 205er, good striker, big motherf***er but I'm not a b**** about it, me and him were having wars, I was trying to kill him and I got caught, it is what it is."
Sean Strickland fights Jack Hermansson in the main event of UFC Fight Night on BT Sport 2 this Saturday night.
Prelims kick off at 10pm, with the main card beginning at midnight.
