AND NEW!!! Yes, Seriously.

*** Highlights! Watch Strickland Score MASSIVE upset over Adesanya !!! ***

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya — perhaps the most accurate and deadly striker in the sport — stepped inside the cage at UFC 293 tonight (Sat., Sept. 9, 2023) to silence Sean Strickland once and for all (we can hope, right?) and then book a future date with South African rival, Dricus Du Plessis.

Apparently, Strickland didn’t read that memo.

Adesanya let Strickland do most of the talking this week, non-plussed with all of Strickland’s nonsense. But, when it came to entering the cage to let his fists and feet do the talking, Adesanya wasted no time getting into the cage:

And when it came down to actually fighting, Adesanya apparently left his best game in the locker room behind him, dropping his 185-pound strap this evening inside Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, in a shocking upset.

No one could have predicted such a landslide.

Strickland was biting on the feints almost immediately, but he continued to walk down Izzy regardless. Izzy bobbed and weaved, his back to the fence, as Strickland tried to corner him. Strickland scored with a low kick and a soft jab, with Izzy doing some calculations as he looked for an opening to exploit. Izzy launched a kick, which Strickland caught, and then released rather than mushing him against the cage. Strickland landed a nice combination along the cage with 90 seconds left in the first round, but Izzy continued to circle and crunch future striking equations in his brain.

Then, Strickland interrupted all that with his patented one-two combination.

Izzy fell to the ground, clearly stunned. And Strickland was all over him with a barrage of shots. He was able to get back to his feet, his back turned to Strickland, eating big shots to either side of his head. Strickland continued to poor it on, but it just wasn’t enough as the Izzy was saved by the bell.

Izzy looked like he cleared the cobwebs coming our for round two, but Strickland smelled blood in the water regardless. Strickland continued to march forward, his rudimentary straight-up, shelled offensive stance seemingly giving him fits. Izzy scored with a nice right hand midway through the second round, but Strickland’s sheer volume was seemingly enough to take another round from the champion. Izzy landed a grazing overhand right with one minute left on the clock. He started to find a nice groove late, perhaps signaling that he was ready for the final three rounds — close round.

Izzy appeared to be more active early to start the third round. Strickland was the same, keeping Izzy on his backfoot and moving side-to-side constantly, not giving him the time to set up anything meaningful (or powerful). Izzy missed with a looping right hand, but Strickland’s counter shots found their marks. Strickland drilled Izzy with a hard left hook late in the third, and appeared to perhaps stack another round on the judges scorecards. Izzy’s accuracy was just not there through 15 minutes.

Between rounds, Strickland’s corner was on him about turning up the heat. Izzy was clearly content with moving, countering and pot-shotting until he was ready for something bigger. Strickland began to go to work in the fourth round, backing the champion up against the fence and landing more than he was eating. He took his corner team’s advice and more than likely won a very important round late, heading into the final frame perhaps up 3-1 on the champion.

Strickland didn’t let his foot off the gas in the final round, continuing to just pester, poke and prod Izzy relentlessly. The champion looked uncomfortable for about 23 of the 25 minutes of the fight. He couldn’t seem to pull the trigger and, when he did, Strickland made him pay — Izzy’s swollen, bloody face told the story of the bout.

Sean Strickland is UFC’s new Middleweight champion. Just let that sink on for a moment. What a massive betting upset, too.

Who’s laughing now?

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For complete UFC 293 results, coverage and highlights click HERE.