On the night of September 10, there was a huge stir in Australia. Current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya failed to pick up the keys from Sean Strickland and his strange stance in five rounds and lost the title.
We now live in a crazy era where Strickland is the UFC champion and this promises to be interesting. Sean, even without a title, often surprised the public with his controversial statements, and now he will receive even more attention from the press. By the way, the American himself has already laughed at this situation: “I’m sure Dana White and Hunter Campbell are now thinking:” How did we let this happen? How did we let this idiot get the belt? We screwed up!
Strickland is the new middleweight king:
The surprise of the year! Strickland defeats Adesanya and becomes the new middleweight king
Strickland has traveled a very long and thorny path to become what he is now. The current champion’s problems began in childhood. His father broke his toys, hit his mother and little Sean couldn’t do anything about it. But this prompted him to teach him how to fight. After his father’s death, Strickland passed into the hands of his grandfather, who promoted radical views on human races. The teenager was attracted by this, he absorbed these opinions: “There was a lot of hatred in me. He would walk with a rock or a stick just to attack someone. “I admired my grandfather.”
Sean was expelled from school in the ninth grade for a hate crime, and his mother decided to find her son an MMA gym where people of different ethnic groups would train alongside him. There Strickland changed: “When I started training I thought, damn, I don’t hate anyone. They are all great. Back then, many of the people who helped me in my life were not white. Usually the white people in my life were the bad characters. Many ethnic people lent a hand. And it’s crazy because I’ve adopted these views and yet people help me and they’re not even white. So it was a strange thing and I was very ashamed of my worldview and my actions. Now I am ashamed because I was the spokesperson for this ideology.
I was a stupid child again, but there is no excuse for my behavior. It’s a shame we have to live with.”
Strickland began competing in professional MMA early. He primarily wrestled in the King of the Cage promotion, where Daniel Cormier, TJ Dillashaw, and Ronda Rousey once performed. Sean quickly reached a 12-0 record and with those numbers he was signed by the UFC. There, the American fighter soon decided to move to the welterweight division, where he successfully fought two fights and decided to move down to the welterweight division. In his first fight at the new weight, Strickland suffered the first loss of his professional career: against Santiago Ponzinibbio.
In October 2018, Shawn defeated Nordin Taleb. He then did not suspect that he would spend two years outside the octagon and would be about to say goodbye to his career as a fighter.
“I was coming back from training and I had an accident. It wasn’t my fault, but I ended up passing out. I came to my senses after the operation. I have a long road ahead of me, but I love fighting and I’m going to come back. I was going straight, the car turned in my direction and I crashed into it at a speed of 70 km/h. I spent about three hours unconscious. That night I had surgery on my knee and the doctor said it wasn’t that bad. “I’ll be back in a few months,” Strickland said at the time.
I had to wait exactly two years to return. Sean returned and again moved up to middleweight and won the next five fights, entering the top 5 of the rankings. The American himself explained that the accident ended two years of his career, but that he also had a positive side. Michael Bisping referred to this: “According to the insurance conditions, they paid him a very good sum. And he says that amount changed everything. It’s not like he’s gotten up to 185 pounds and gotten more athletic and stronger. And the fact that with this money the pressure was taken off. The financial stress disappeared and he began to fight for fun, no longer feeling the pressure. This pressure affected his performances a lot.”
Overall, Strickland has never hidden the fact that he cares little about the championship belt itself. The main thing for him is money. Before the fight with Adesanya, the American said: “I came here for the money.”
And a year and a half ago he spoke of himself even more harshly: “I’m a damn idiot. I am a prostitute. I take off my clothes, they lock me in a cage and I try to kill the other guy. This is my job. And I’ll tell you what, guys. I like being a well-paid prostitute. It’s fucking fun.”
Before his title fight with Adesanya, Strickland fought Nassurdin Imavov and Abusupyan Magomedov. This is another touch to the portrait of the American: he really accepts any challenge. Give Sean his money and he’ll fight anyone. So at one point he accepted a fight with Alex Pereira and, in fact, it became for the Brazilian the step he needed towards the title fight. And when Strickland was asked why he accepted such a fight, he said that he had heard about the power of Alex’s punch and wanted to feel it for himself.
Sean Strickland
Photo: Mark Evans/Getty Images
By the way, Pereira is now friends with Sean and even gave him some advice before the title fight, and then he was happy for his friend: “Talking about the fight, everyone expressed their opinion before the fight, but I haven’t seen Not even a single one. “MMA expert” that he adequately appreciated Sean. Now everyone is looking for excuses because they were wrong. That’s all they can do. Many now say that Adesanya was not in the best shape and was not fighting like he usually does. In fact, Sean came out and stifled his game. He acted very intelligently. He continued to advance, showing incredible defense. At the same time, he hit very accurately, all his movements were precise, he didn’t do anything unnecessary and we all saw the result. I want to congratulate Sean again, he has done an incredible job and I am excited about the changes in the division.”
In Australia, Strickland punched a fan, raising concern in the UFC:
“Right in the guts!” Strickland punches angry fan and nearly ruins title fight
Behind all of Strickland’s outrageous one-liners and actions, it’s easy to forget that he not only puts on a show for the media and fans, but he’s also a good wrestler. Sean himself laughs at this: “Sometimes I talk so much that people forget that I can fight.”
When Strickland starts walking towards the octagon, he is a completely different person. He leaves all the jokes, all the trash talk out and focuses his attention on his opponent. Yes, they laugh at his stance, he doesn’t have the power to knock out an opponent with one punch, but his style works. Sean works under passive pressure, forcing his opponent to open up and counterattack. Plus great cardio. Do you even remember the last time Strickland lost steam? Although he may lack some skills in some areas, he is a strong and skilled fighter. Of course, Strickland got the chance to win the title largely by accident: the tournament had to be saved. And he may not retain the belt for long, but right now he is absolutely deserving.
After the fight with Adesanya, at a press conference, Strickland was happy about his earnings: “Now I will start earning more money. I’m putting spinners on my Hyundai Accent. “I’ll put spinner wheels on my $16,000 Hyundai Accent for $20,000, and it will be great.”
This is Sean Strickland and he is the new UFC Middleweight Champion.
