And New! Sean Strickland Beats Israel Adesanya - An Analysis

 





By Stuart Graeber, Swish Tribune


This past weekend sent shockwaves through the UFC and the MMA community as a whole. In UFC 293, Sean Strickland defeated Israel Adesanya by way of unanimous decision. This was a complete shock, with Adesanya favorite to win this fight by a significant margin. This was the biggest upset in UFC history, with Sean Strickland being a +650 underdog. Lets talk about how it happened.

Israel Adesanya is internationally renowned for his superior striking and defensive capabilities. Adesanya has made his money on being a counter-striker with precise kicks and punches. Because of this, the most common strategy used against Adesanya is extremely passive fighting, waiting for him to make a mistake. The problem with this is that it allows Adesanya to become comfortable in the pocket and when that happens, there isn't a man alive who can strike with him. Sean Strickland took a different approach.

Sean Strickland's strategy against Adesanya was to do the complete opposite as all of Adesanya's previous challengers. Strickland applied maximum pressure on Adesanya, tracking him around the outside of the cage and not giving him a chance to breathe. Strickland has one of the best gas tanks in the entire UFC, and he used this to his advantage in this fight. Strickland's boxing background was another key factor in his victory but not for the reasons you may think. It was Strickland's defense that proved to be ironclad against Adesanya, barely taking any damage. This was because of his shoulder roll, a type of defense commonly seen in boxing, but rarely used in MMA. Strickland's unorthodox defensive measures were enough to stifle Adesanya's offense for 5 rounds. Strickland dominated Adesanya with his jab and straight punch all fight long, and Adesanya had no answer.

To put it bluntly, Adesanya was dominated and humiliated in this fight. All judges scored the fight four rounds to Strickland and one to Adesanya, and even the round Adesanya won was extremely close. Strickland knocked Adesanya down in the first round with a beautiful straight right and from then on Adesanya could not get anything going. 

Going forward, I expect the next match to be a title fight rematch. I expect Adesanya to come back and win that fight. UFC 293 was a great example of how fighting can really be about who performs better on one individual night. What I mean by that is there are no redos. If Adesanya and Strickland fought in a best of 7 series then Adesanya might've won that. The truth is that it wasn't Adesanya's night, and Strickland put on the performance of his career. I don't expect this to happen again.

Khamzat Chimaev and Paolo Costa will be fighting against each other at UFC 294 (headlined by Islam Makhachev vs Charles Oliveira). That fight should be for the number one contender once Strickland and Adesanya finish their rematch or potential trilogy. I expect Khamzat to beat Costa and eventually challenge Adesanya for the title. 

Overall, the Strickland vs Adesanya fight was extremely interesting to watch and had a very shocking outcome that has left the MMA community in disarray. Expect a rematch soon, and Adesanya to regain his belt.

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