Manel Kape says there is no lingering bad blood with Sean Strickland after their recent social media blow-up following UFC Vegas 119 in Las Vegas.
Kape is coming off a knockout win over Kyoji Horiguchi at the event, after which he and the UFC middleweight champion traded heated messages online. The dispute started when Strickland insulted Kape’s manager Ali Abdelaziz and accused the flyweight contender of cheating.
“There is nothing,” Kape said when asked about the situation. “Some people just talk a lot and we have to put people in their place. It doesn’t matter what weight class. Some people we have to show who’s the true people. Who is the bully and who is not the bully. People confuse sometimes weight with confidence. It’s nothing.”
Kape and Strickland both train at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas under head coach Eric Nicksick, and Kape expects they will share the mats again despite the online back-and-forth. “We’re the same city, same gyms and everything. So we’ve crossed [paths],” he said. “Believe me, I’m so confident in myself. We’ll see if it’s awkward. Some people [talk] online. Others are good in real life. We’re good. [This is] not the first time.”
Strickland has temporarily left Las Vegas to train at American Top Team in Florida to help Johnny Eblen prepare for a title fight in the PFL. Kape, who previously had a verbal confrontation with then-middleweight champion Israel Adesanya after withdrawing injured from a scheduled bout with Kai Kara-France, summed up the current situation simply: “But we’re all good. We’re all men. We all handle the things we should handle. Our way.”
