Hernandez trains with Strickland after being stopped by him in February upset

Anthony Hernandez is preparing for his Aug. 22 UFC Sacramento headliner against Gregory Rodrigues (19-6) with an unlikely training partner: Sean Strickland, the man who stopped him in the third round just months ago.

Hernandez (15-3) entered his February bout against Strickland (28-1) as a sizeable favourite, but Strickland neutralised his wrestling and picked him apart on the feet to earn a stoppage win that few saw coming. The victory handed Strickland an immediate middleweight title shot against Khamzat Chimaev, whom he dethroned in another major upset at UFC 328 last month.

Far from harbouring any resentment, Hernandez has since linked up with the new champion at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas, where he is spending much of his current camp. Hernandez is based at the MMA Gold Fight Team in California but has made arrangements to train regularly with Strickland, who works out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.

“He’s a cool dude, man. I got nothing bad to say about the guy,” Hernandez said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “He’s been helping me, and I’ve been training with him.”

Hernandez revealed that Strickland had actually reached out first, asking him to help prepare for the Chimaev fight. An injury prevented Hernandez from accepting at the time, but he made a promise to make it happen later.

“He actually hit me up for the Khamzat fight, but I was injured at the time and couldn’t go out to help him. I was like, ‘I’ll eventually train with you.’ I’m going to be in Vegas a lot more for camp this time, so we set it up so we could train together,” Hernandez said. “That motherf—er’s tough as hell, bro. He’s a tough son of a bitch.”

Hernandez now faces Rodrigues in Sacramento with a point to prove after the setback, and with the reigning middleweight champion in his corner of the gym, he appears to be making the most of the connection.