Jonny Parsons says Sean Strickland knocked him out cold in sparring, then drove him home

The head kick came six weeks before his Contender Series fight, and he says he did "almost no training" before winning a UFC contract. He fights for the first time since 2023 on Saturday.

Jonny Parsons says Sean Strickland knocked him out cold with a head kick in sparring six weeks before the Contender Series fight that earned him a UFC contract, and then gave him a lift home.

The pair were sparring at Syndicate MMA, where Parsons still trains. "Before Strickland kind of settled down at Xtreme Couture, he was training at Syndicate [MMA]," Parsons told Danny Podolsky, Sherdog reported. "Second half of the round, I start getting a little winded, he kind of catches a groove to my head movement and he kind of just pops up a one-two head kick. I slipped the one, I rolled the two, and right as I came out of the roll, boom - head kick across the jaw, across the face. I faceplanted out cold."

Parsons said he only saw how it unfolded on the gym's security footage. "I only know what it looks like 'cause I watched the footage from the security camera afterward... Sean Strickland was nice enough to drive me home that day," he said. "That was six weeks before my Contender Series fight. So going into my Contender Series fight, I really did almost no training."

He still won that 2021 fight on a split decision and got his contract. Strickland has since become a two-time UFC middleweight champion.

Parsons has not fought since his UFC debut in London in July 2023, when he stopped England's Danny Roberts in the second round at The O2. He said he pushed himself too hard in training and that lingering injuries kept him out.

Parsons (9-3) now returns against Jose Henrique Souza (9-1) at UFC Vegas 124 in Las Vegas on Saturday 7 November. Johnny Walker fights Waldo Cortes-Acosta on short notice in the main event.

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