Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland headline UFC 293 and bantamweight titleholder Sean O’Malley gave his breakdown of the fight on his YouTube channel.
The event takes place at Quados Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on Sept. 9. Not a lot of people are giving Strickland a chance of winning, and that includes O’Malley.
“Sean Strickland is such a huge underdog, even a bigger underdog than I was against Aljo [Aljamain Sterling]. God, if he f**king wins I’ll probably jump off a cliff on my f**king head.”
O’Malley was hesitant to say Sean Strickland’s definitely going to lose to Adesanya because he didn’t want to sound like those that counted him out against Sterling.
“I watched Countdown yesterday and Sean Strickland definitely doesn’t suck. He’s not bad. He’s good. I want to say but I can’t. When it comes to a straight striking match, Izzy should – fighting is crazy, and everybody was saying Aljo’s going to win, Aljo’s going to win, Aljo’s going to when so for me to say Izzy’s going to win, Sean doesn’t have a chance, I sound just like those guys, so I’m not going to say that. But, from a technique standpoint, they’re both strikers. Izzy is a cleaner striker. He’s more, he’s just a better striker. He’s a little big quicker.
“They’re just two different styles. Sean Strickland has this pace. He hits pretty hard, but he has this kind of like constant pace. Izzy kind of pop shots, moves, leg kicks and moves. If I had to guess I’d say Izzy KOs him. Izzy finishes him, but it’s so hard to say.
“It’s crazy. Sean Strickland, every practice he’s just sparring, sparring, sparring. He knocked out his sparring partner with a head kick. For Sean Strickland to be the UFC champ, that would be f**king crazy. I mean Izzy would probably get a rematch. Who else would – Sean Strickland the new champ, maybe that would – nah, they don’t want Strickland to be the champ.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/ufcnews/sean-omalley-breaks-down-israel-adesanya-vs-sean-strickland