Sean Strickland spars fan on stage during open workout days before Israel Adesanya title fight at UFC 293

Sean Strickland continues to do things his own way ahead of UFC 293.

The 32-year-old will face Israel Adesanya for middleweight gold at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on Saturday night.  

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However, he put the fight at risk on Wednesday when he invited a random fan to hurl punches at his face during a unique open workout.

The unknown man initially seemed intent on throwing light body shots before Strickland unleashed a hard one-two combination and began taunting him.

Strickland happily took a few shots to the stomach and an overhand right to the head while walking down his opponent and repeatedly catching him with straight shots.

Ultimately, they touched gloves, and the sparring session ended without anyone getting hurt.

This is not Strickland’s first faux pas during UFC 293 fight week.

The American has been saddled with a minder after irking UFC president Dana White by punching a fan who predicted ‘Izzy is gonna f*** you up’.

After watching the latest Contender Series in Las Vegas on Tuesday, White played down the scuffle but insisted it won’t happen again.

“Do you know where the news came from that he punched a fan?” he said.

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“Yeah, (the news came from Strickland). Yeah, he’s a beauty. He played it up more than whatever and was joking. The fan and him are cool.

“Going into this, I knew. I knew what this week was going to be like.

“Yes, we’re prepared for it and yes we have people around him now, so he won’t be punching people in the stomach anymore – for fun or not for fun.”

Strickland is hoping to score his biggest win ever this weekend.

The former welterweight, who got dropped by Kamaru Usman in 2017, is coming off back-to-back wins but has only found himself in title contention because number one contender Dricus du Plessis is unable to fight.

It’ll take a career-best performance to cause an upset against Adesanya, but first, he’s got to get through the rest of fight week without hitting another civilian.