"It was really like a heavyweight fight" - Shannon Sharpe reveals behind the curtain details of his relationship with Skip Bayless

The new host of ESPN's "First Take," Shannon Sharpe, got real about what it was like working with Skip Bayless during his seven-year stay as an analyst on FS1's "Undisputed." Sharpe was a guest on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" and talked about his working relationship with Bayless.

Sharpe worked with Bayless for seven years but decided to leave him in June 2023. Many speculated that it was mainly because of personal issues between the two that the former NFL star opted to leave the company. During his appearance at Smith's show, he got real and talked about his relationship with Bayless:

"Skip would get to work, I would get to work. I was in my dressing room, he was in his dressing room. It was really like a heavyweight fight. We barely talked.

"I mean, honest to God. We might say hello. We'd go to the bathroom. If we're passing each other in the bathroom, 'Hello,' that was it. It was not a carry on conversation. It was very little communication. Well, I take my cue from him. He was not a guy that was very talkative in the morning.

Sharpe continued:

"During the breaks, he would get up and leave. After a couple of times of seeing that, I'm seeing that he's in a mode, he's in a zone in which he doesn't want to be bothered.

"He's treating this like an actual game. In seven years, Skip and I, I think we had brunch once and that's okay. I don't think Skip's a bad guy. I didn't develop the type of work relationship with him because I didn't get the sense that's what he wanted."

According to Sharpe, his relationship with Bayless was purely professional and both of them respected what each of them wanted to do.

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Shannon Sharpe talks about his argument with Skip

In 2022, both Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless got into it on live television. Bayless compared Sharpe to Tom Brady, who at the time wasn't playing well according to the former tight end.

Sharpe took offense to how Bayless reacted and clarified it in front of Stephen A. Smith:

"A lot of that is my fault because there were times that let up to that, that I felt that shots were taken and I let it go.

"Whatever the relationship is, once one partner has no respect for the other, the other partner then in turn loses respect for said partner. ... I felt in that moment, he had lost all respect for me. He had no respect for me."

Sharpe shared that he was hurt after that incident, which triggered his decision to leave the show.