What mattered most in the fallout of Sean Strickland’s middleweight title upset of Sean Strickland at UFC 293 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney? Here are a few post-fight musings …
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Sean Strickland's perfect title performance
If you were to draw up the perfect title-winning moment for Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC), this was it. He used his best attributes to the fullest over the course of five rounds, and left with a unanimous decision win over Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) to claim the 185-pound belt.
What would the most optimistic Strickland supporter have said pre-fight about his path to victory? Maybe he could walk down Adesanya and force him on the back foot, thus limiting his offensive options and making it a slower, more technical fight. That sounds good if his chin held up and he didn’t get KO’d. In addition, Strickland needed a big moment or two. Maybe it was a knockdown – which he got in the first round – or maybe a takedown or close submission attempt.
All of that came together flawlessly for Strickland. He was calm, composed and confident from beginning to end. He never let Adesanya get comfortable, and he pulled off what felt like an unthinkable upset.
There were no questions when it was over. If the fight was stopped during his knockdown and subsequent flurry in the first round, people would’ve argued it was a fluke or an early stoppage. But the fact he outfought Adesanya for almost 20 full minutes after that to win a decision that had no doubt and no controversy, is one of the great accomplishments I’ve ever had the honor to watch from cageside.
An off night or something more from Israel Adesanya?
I know it seems unfair to Strickland to flip from giving him all the praise I did above to now wondering if the result played out the way it did because Adesanya might be on the decline. But that’s what I’m doing, and we must keep in mind that pieces of both things can be true.
Being in Sydney for the entirety of fight week, I can definitely say that despite the expectations of dominance in the back of everyone’s mind, something did feel a little bit unusual. Does that mean I thought Adesanya was going to lose or have any idea what was coming? Absolutely not. I expected him to win.
But from his reluctance to fully engage in some of the verbal exchanges with Strickland in the lead-up to the fight, to his reluctance to engage in the octagon after nearly getting slept in the first round, he definitely got forced out of his natural rhythm.
I say this with all due respect to the former champion, but I’ve seen people give more resistence to Strickland in sparring. We don’t know how badly hurt he was from the knockdown, the checked kicks or the other damage he sustained, but that definitely wasn’t his finest form.
It begs the questions , however, about whether there’s a better version of himself that could be discovered, or if that’s the new version of him that exists going forward as he approach his 35th birthday next summer.
Was this the biggest upset in UFC history?
This is the burning questions on many people’s minds in the aftermath of this fight. Did Strickland’s feat of beating Adesanya surpass Matt Serra over Georges St-Pierre, Holly Holm over Ronda Rousey and Chris Weidman over Anderson Silva – which I consider the top-three upsets in UFC history – in the discussion?
All of those wins are such iconic moments. I was either heavily invested as a fan or a member of the media when all three happened, and there’s a lot of nostalgia involved when trying to put myself back in those moments and draw comparisons to what Strickland achieved.
From an exposure standpoint, this is probably second to Holm over Rousey. That was such a monumental moment given the wave of success Rousey was riding at the time. It was the pinnacle of her MMA stardom, and both the sports and mainstream world was watching. Strickland vs. Adesanya wasn’t that, and it was actually one of the weaker cards on paper than most recently. In fact, many people probably skipped out on watching this event because they thought the headliner was foregone conclusion.
Additionally, the sport is bigger and has more global appeal than it did when Serra beat St-Pierre or Weidman beat Silva, so Strickland’s win gets its respects in that regard.
On paper, however, it’s all about historic context, and we’re too close to UFC 293 to make a proper determination. We saw how dominant St-Pierre was in his rematch with Serra, which is why that’s the No. 1 upset ever, in my opinion. Silva was in his late 30s when he lost to Weidman, then broke his leg in the rematch, robbing us of a true sense of finality. And Rousey – we know her history of handling losses poorly and a rematch with Holm never came close to materializing.
Like it or not, all signs point to Adesanya getting his rematch. It’s then and there that we will find out whether Strickland is his kryptonite, whether Adesanya is on the decline, or something in between.
What's next for Strickland and Adesanya?
While we talked much about the impact of the fight itself above, there’s a plethora of discussion to be had about what is coming next both sides, and if Adesanya truly deserves an immediate rematch.
Watch the video below for more discussion about those elements of the UFC 293 aftermath.
Strickland:
Adesanya:
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
