Sean Strickland shocks the world beats Israel Adesanya to become UFC Middleweight Champion

While Anderson Silva reigned the UFC middleweight division for over 8 years, many fans with ‘recent tendencies’ have started proclaiming Israel Adesanya as the ‘GOAT’ of the division.  A bonafide star ‘Izzy’ has ruled over the division with his only defeat coming at Light Heavyweight when he went up to 205 to challenge Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 before returning to Middleweight to defend his belt 3 more times before facing a familiar foe in Alex Pereira.

Pereira who had 2 previous KO wins over Israel Adesanya went on to win via TKO at UFC 281 before giving Izzy an immediate rematch which was won by Adesanya.  Pushing to stay active Adesanya pressured the UFC to make a matchup against former Management stablemate Sean Strickland in Australia.  Strickland used straight forward movement, orthodox boxing and forward pressure to win 4 rounds to 1 in a fight he was a 4 to 1 underdog in.  Adesanya has now lost 2 out of 3 however UFC President Dana White hinted at an immediate rematch in the division.

Other UFC 293 performances included Alexander Volkov submission win over Tai Tuivasa, Manel Kape and Felipe Dos Santos fight of the night, Justin Tafa and Tyson Pedro KO’s ad a strong performance by Jamie Mullarkey to defeat John Makdessi who has now lost 3 out of 4. Former Bellator MMA washout Kiefer Crosbie also made his UFC debut getting defeated by Kevin Jousset at 4:49 of the first round by submission.