No.5 ranked middleweight fighter Sean Strickland is only a couple hours away from the most important fight of his life. The unfiltered and controversial UFC personality will be fighting against middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for the title. While many believe Strickland has no likelihood of winning the bout, his peculiar stance might just give him a fighting chance.
Apart from his erratic personality, Tarzan also boasted a very peculiar and unorthodox fighting stance. Strickland would place both his hands closer to himself and stand upright in front of his opponent. Although Sean was able to defend himself using this stance, he went on to refine it.
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Strickland recently adopted a much more iconic fighting stance similar to the Philly Shell. This style was majorly used by Floyd Mayweather which helped him with his impregnable defense. Opponents struggled to land clean punches on Mayweather and he was never knocked down throughout his career.
While Sean is yet to perfect the technique, he has won two fights after changing to Philly shell. His next opponent is one of the highest-rated strikers in UFC and reigned the middleweight division for quite some time. Yet, Sean might just be able to pull the upset if he makes wise decisions inside the octagon.
Even though Strickland seems to be on a roll with his new technique, he will have to bring everything to the table. Tarzan will have to use every skill set in his arsenal to stand a winning chance against Adesanya.
How good of a chance does Sean Strickland have in his fight against Israel Adesanya?
Sean Strickland is currently riding a two-fight winning streak against Nassourdine Imamov and Abus Magomedov. While his last two opponents were relatively new in UFC, his next opponent Israel Adesanya is one of the best in the organization. Adesanya has lost only twice in the UFC and defeated the best through his fighting career.
The Stylebender is prominently a striker and has a striking accuracy of 49 percent. To counter this Strickland has been extensively working on his wrestling. Tarzan has a takedown accuracy of 64 percent and a takedown defense of 84 percent.
Strickland also boasts a 62 percent striking defense which will surely play a huge role in his upcoming fight. However, despite having great wrestling, Sean will most likely prefer to fight standing up.
“I’ve been wrestling lot in my camp. But you know, sometimes you get up there and you’re looking at a man and you know I think to myself, I wanna stand and bang with him. So I probably should wrestle but that’s probably not going to happen,” said Sean in his interview.
Apart from his wrestling, Sean also has a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. However, if Sean prefers to keep the fight standing, his chances of winning are questionable. Do you think Sean Strickland manages to pull the upset at UFC 293? Let us know in the comments below.
