Sean Strickland shocked the MMA world in Sydney last night by defeating one of the sports best champions, Israel Adesanya. A truly monumental moment in the sports history rivalling the upsets of yesteryear like Julianna Pena, Holly Holm and Matt Serra.
The American became only the third man to hand Adesanya a defeat in the octagon in a mightily impressive performance that not many if any MMA fans thought was at all possible. Strickland came into the fight expecting a war and an incredibly tough test but that was not the case as the fight played out. The result was a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the bout 49-46. Most surprisingly was the seeming lacklustre efforts from the champion who looked to utilise his elite counter striking throughout but could not get through the immaculate defence of the challenger. A crisp cross from Strickland knocked Adesanya down in the very first round which ignited belief that an upset was truly on the cards.
Sean Strickland Post Fight Press Conference
The newly crowned UFC Middleweight king had plenty to say in the post fight press conference, most intriguingly were his comments on Adesanya’s own performance.
“I feel like the guy didn’t even f****ng try. There were moments where he was throwing punches and I was like ‘Am I fighting an amateur right now, what the f*** is going on?’. I thought I was going to be leaving with a concussion but I feel relatively fine other than a few bumps and bruises.” Strickland stated.
As mentioned previously Strickland felt the fight should’ve been a lot tougher.
“I didn’t really take much damage other than checking a few kicks, I still can’t wrap my head around it and I thought it would be a lot harder. I thought I’d be walking away a little bloodied up and concussed.”
Dana White came out producing the idea of an immediate rematch for Adesanya, something that has garnered a mixed reaction in the community due to the sheer dominance of Strickland’s performance. How would you evaluate the performance of Sean Strickland?
Would you run the fight back immediately or give Dricus Du Plessis his well earned shot against the newly crowned champion?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
