Sean Strickland/Navy SEALs Feud Escalates, Offers To Fight Any SEAL Who Wants A Shot

Sean Strickland's beef with some Navy SEALs isn't going away.

In fact, it appears to be escalating.

Strickland, a top UFC fighter on the planet, made waves when he said there wasn't a Navy SEAL out there who could stick with him in fight training. Most rational people with a functioning brain - including former SEAL Team 6 vet Andy Stumpf - knew he was talking about fighting - not war.

Yet, some former SEALs used it as an opportunity to attack Strickland as if he'd crossed some kind of imaginary line and did the unthinkable.

Enter Jason Pike.

Pike released a video a few weeks ago about how he would destroy Strickland in a street fight and even suggested he might "run" his "thumb up" Strickland's "butt" after lubing it up. Totally normal and not insanely weird at all.

Sean Strickland offers to fight any Navy SEAL who wants a go.

Well, it turns out Strickland saw Pike's insanely cringe and weird video, DM'd him on Instagram but Pike never got back to him. No worries though, because Strickland is open to fighting any Navy SEAL who wants to step into the octagon.

Let's run it back with Stumpf's quote about former SEAL Jimmy Watson's video:

[Strickland is] playing a character. It's part of who he is and what he does in the UFC. If you think the SEAL - or the guy who was a SEAL - who responded to him is also not playing a character, then I don't know what to tell you because that is one of the worst representations of the SEAL community possible. He needs to shut the f*ck up…This whole, ‘We’ve taken souls.' Shut the f*ck up. Shut up. Like, dude, go write a Hollywood movie if you want to talk about it like that.' It nauseates me. I was a professional soldier. Not a psychopath. I'm not out there trying to delicately navigate my way through the spiritual universe and take this soul and that soul.

I truly can't believe we're even still having this conversation. Nobody is arguing Sean Strickland is a better gunfighter than an ST6 commando. Sean Strickland isn't making that claim.

He's arguing that when it comes to fight training, he would beat a Navy SEAL, and he's 100% correct. It's no different than an NFL QB saying he can throw a football better than a Navy SEAL. It's different training for different jobs.

Sean Strickland is open to fighting a Navy SEAL. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Do SEALs, especially at the Tier One level, do some hand-to-hand combat training? Yes, but they also spend an incredible amount of time training on other things. All Sean Strickland does is train for fights. As one former SEAL Team 6 operator told, any UFC star would obliterate a Navy SEAL in a fight to the point they'd maybe lose limbs.

Flip the table and get into a gunfight, and it's a different story. However, that's not what Strickland was talking about. Yet, that didn't stop Jason Pike from talking about sticking fingers up a man's butt. Somebody needs to start taking cameras and microphones away from some of these people because the cringe is just too much to handle. I am a big fan of the Navy SEALs. I have friends who did incredible things as Navy SEALs, and if I need to fight ISIS, they'll be among the first calls that get made. However, that's not the debate. It's about fighting.

Could a Navy SEAL beat Sean Strickland in a fight? (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Strickland has put the offer on the table. The dude will fight literally anyone who wants to. If Strickland is wrong - which is possible - then a Navy SEAL should get into the octagon with him. Use it as an opportunity to raise money for charity. He's easy to find, and yet, he claims Pike didn't respond. Funny how that works. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.