Anthony Hernandez: Training with Sean Strickland for UFC Sacramento 'was f*cking great'

Ego never got in the way of Anthony Hernandez training with Sean Strickland.

Hernandez (15-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) saw his eight-fight winning streak snapped by Strickland in February. Strickland sought Hernandez's help to train for his title fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 328 in May, but Hernandez was injured. Still, the pair eventually linked up after Strickland (31-7 MMA, 18-7 UFC) upset Chimaev to claim the UFC middleweight title.

"Sean hit me up to help him out," Hernandez told MMA Junkie. "I was hurt, couldn't, but when I was healthy, I finally went to go train with him. It was f*cking great, and we just started training."

Hernandez will look to rebound when he takes on Gregory Rodrigues (19-6 MMA, 10-3 UFC) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 285 (Paramount+) main event at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif. He saw training with Strickland as a great opportunity to level up.

"This is just like, learning," Hernandez said. "The whole goal is to get better. If I don't ever try to get better then what the f*ck is the point of doing this sh*t. I really am trying to be the best in the world. When I say that, I really mean it. I don't see myself hanging out to do sh*t just because.

"I don't want to be a gatekeeper. I don't want to be that guy. I just want to go forward and make as much money as I can so that I can get out of this sh*t and just coach and actually be around my kids and take them to sports and actually spend time with them. That's my goal, man. This fighting sh*t just pays the bills, and it helps with my f*cking anger issues."

Hernandez explained what went wrong in his loss to Strickland.

"Because he's f*cking good," Hernandez said on why he lost to Strickland. "Sh*t happens, bro. I don't know. We were fighting, I got caught, I got impatient, and I got caught. Made a couple of mistakes and got caught. Sean's a really f*cking good guy, he's a really good fighter, he's a tough son of a b*tch, and you can never count him out. I think he's shown that multiple times. At the top, you're going to face some really good people. You're either going to adjust or you're going to break, and I don't plan on breaking. I plan on adjusting and going forward."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Anthony Hernandez: Training with Sean Strickland for UFC Sacramento 'was f*cking great'