Sean Strickland just shocked Israel Adesanya and the mixed martial arts world.
The American dropped Adesanya in the first round and never looked back, serving up constant pressure and steady upright boxing to deliver a unanimous decision victory over Israel Adesanya to become the new middleweight world champion in the UFC 293 headliner Sunday. Judges all scored it 49-46 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
“Am I f—ing dreaming? Am I going to wake up? Somebody hit me. Oh my God guys. Literally, never in a million years did I thought I would be here,” Strickland said in the Octagon following the biggest win of his career.
As a heavy underdog and fifth-ranked middleweight entering the fight, Strickland caught Adesanya’s attention during the first round with a left-right combination, which split “The Last Stylebender’s” guard and dropped him with a thud. Clearly hurt badly, Adesanya even turned his back to Strickland, who swung away and pummeled Adesanya all the way to the end of the first round, nearly finsihing the champion right there and then.
From there, Strickland kept his forward-fighting pressure and consistently produced poised boxing to keep Adesanya on his heels around the Octagon. That constant movement unsettled Adesanya, who could never truly find his footing nor groove, exerting all that energy moving around the cage.
Strickland stood solid and upright behind the jab, catching Adesanya with enough stiff shots, especially his jabs, to win comfortably on judges’ scorecards to shake up the UFC.
