Sean Strickland has shocked the world as he arguably pulled off the biggest upset in the history of the UFC by defeating one of the greatest middleweight fighters of all time, Israel Adesanya, to get hold of the middleweight gold.
Strickland had nothing to lose in this high-profile matchup against Izzy, and much to everyone’s surprise, he lost nothing. Right from the press conferences to the fight, he just dominated everything that came his way.
The new champion is known for his brutal trash talk and has frequently engaged in bad-mouthing on social media which has made him highly controversial. One such banter that Strickland was engaged in was with former Bellator fighter Dillon Danis, who is infamous for calling out everyone on social media to fight him. ‘El Jefe’ posted a screenshot of a chat in January of this year with Strickland.
In the screenshot put out by Dillon, Strickland was criticizing his approach towards trash-talking and was advising him to stop as it was the right thing to do. However, Danis was not having any of it as he replied with, “lick mr balls b*tch id literally hold you down and make you like my a*se”.
While many could not understand Danis’ motive behind poking the middleweight veteran, this was nothing new for him. He is currently in the news as he is going to take on Logan Paul in a boxing match in Manchester, London, on Oct. 14.
Sean Strickland defeats Israel Adesanya to become the UFC middleweight champion.
Exactly 100 PPVs ago at UFC 193, Holly Holm shocked one and all when she became the first fighter to defeat women’s bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. Some believe that Strickland’s win over Adesanya was an even bigger upset than that.
This is because, not only did Strickland defeat the two-time champion, he did it in the most dominating fashion. He won by a unanimous decision, and all three scorecards read 49-46. No one has managed to make Izzy look so helpless inside the octagon.
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After the completion of five rounds, Izzy was battered and bruised, and his mouth was also bloodied. However, ‘Tarzan’ stood without a scratch and waited for the UFC middleweight belt to be wrapped around his waist.
Additionally, his win has made the MMA world happy, as no one really dislikes an underdog success story. Fights like these are necessary to make sure we remember that nothing is certain in this sport. The better fighter wins no matter what the odds are, and this is what makes the sport special.