It's going to be a tremendous weekend of sports! I have to work a lot in between many events but I am going to try to catch as much as I can. I am surely going to catch UFC 293 tonight and my Titans playing tomorrow in New Orleans!
In just a couple of hours UFC 293 kicks off in Sydney, Australia! Once upon a time I visited Australia! Feels like a lifetime ago. I had a great time, the city was amazing!
The card is littered with fighters from Australia and New Zealand. Jamie Mullarkey, Jack Jenkins, Tyson Pedro, Tai Tuivasa all hail from Australia. Shane Young, Carlos Ulberg, Justin Tafa and of course Israel Adesanya all are fighters from New Zealand.
The card overall is slightly underwhelming in terms of outstanding star power but it's not bad and I'm excited to see some lesser known fighters. Matchups like Tai Tuivasa vs Alexander Volkov, Manel Kape vs Felipe Dos Santos and Tyson Pedro vs Anton Turkalj really intrigue me.
This one's gonna be nuts!!!
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The main event of this card is truly intriguing! Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya's UFC career has been truly special to watch. He's been in the UFC for five years and it has been quite an active, and legendary half-decade. He's fought fifteen times in that time, going 13-2 and his list of names he has wins over is just insane. He's beaten Robert Whittaker TWICE, he's also beaten Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Anderson Silva just to name a few. His only losses came to Jan Błachowicz and that was UP a weight class, and Alex Pereira and Israel promptly defeated Alex in a rematch back in April.
Israel is pretty much MMA royalty at this point. I feel he can be a bit of an oddball at times but he's a pretty chill, cool guy for the most part. He seems kind of unbeatable in many ways despite taking two losses. No doubt he can beat anybody and I do see a scenario where he could even beat Jan.
Frankly, even the more casual fans know of Israel's career. The man is pretty much a generational talent and if he were to continue at this pace for like two years he could make a case for #2 All-Time. There's even an outside chance he could be the GOAT one day....
But there's one man standing in Israel's way of continuing his epic Middleweight reign. That man is Sean Strickland.
Sean Strickland is a nut. He's hilarious and cringey and just interestingly obnoxious if that makes sense. Just a one of a kind personality. I actually like what he has to say roughly eighty percent of the time. He has his good and bad moments for sure. Some of the things he says feels like satire, but half the time you just can't tell.
I bring up Sean's personality first because while he's not outright like a McGregor or Sonnen in terms of trash talk, he is a weird version of them. He's like a weird hybrid of McGregor, Sonnen and comedian Theo Von maybe. Like five percent of Strickland's game is his trash talk. I'm unsure if he really gets into his opponents' heads all the time, but he definitely does at least slightly.
Strickland as a fighter in the cage, brings a fairly interesting skillset. His game is not exactly rocket science, he tends to use a lot of volume and a lot of pure boxing. He usually doesn't have the greatest traditonal type of defense. He keeps his hands down and rolls with a lot of punches, seemingly prioritizing vision rather than covering his cranium with his hands. He usually succeeds with this strategy, but it did cost him with Alex Pereira last July.
If I had to compare his style with a current MMA fighter, I'd say Strickland fights like a mildly modified version of Max Holloway and a sprinkle of Dustin Poirier.
This was a bit eye opening of a watch. Strickland has been a legit talent for awhile. A better athlete than people probably give him credit for.
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Many people are writing Strickland off and saying he has no chance and well, people might be right. Adesanya is just so dominant and sharp, and Strickland just looks, nice as a fighter, solid. Strickland's loss to Pereira is also pretty concerning heading into this fight.
BUT if Strickland manages to actually learn from his loss to Pereira and actually implements a solid gameplan, perhaps Strickland has a chance. I'd say Strickland SHOULD try to grapple, but Izzy has proven to be really hard to bring down.
Strickland should attempt grappling of any kind, even if it's just against the fence. Also, Strickland has gotta just be his best psycho self in everything he does.
It's going to be hard though, Strickland might get butchered.
It would be very 'MMA', if Strickland pulled this off. MMA math often doesn't work out too well. The upset honestly would be pretty amazing, and I love a good upset. I doubt it happens though.
I expect Izzy to win, but it will be a fun watch to see how exactly it goes down. Strickland has talked a nice amount of crap, but I don't think it's gotten to Izzy.
Comment your thoughts on UFC 293!