UFC: why Israel Adesanya lost to Sean Strickland

After Middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC) lost in a stunning fashion to challenger, Sean Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC), past events stored in the memories of fans and pundits have been pointing in one direction.

Before the largely-disappointing contest took place at Qudos Bank Arena at Australia, predictions on the outcome were 70% in Adesanya’s favour. His recent exploits and tactics were recalled and reviewed by both practitioners and fans of the sport, and so little was expected of Strickland.

Most people are accusing Alex Pereira for the victory, and though he denies it, that is left for us to judge. Now, who is Pereira?

Israel Adesanya had just easily defeated a long-time rival who had beaten him thrice; his name was Alex Pereira. The defeat seemed to push Pereira to abandon the Middleweight division for a while, since he decided to upgrade to Light Heavyweight for some time, before returning. But the present state of things in the Middleweight changed his mind, because Sean Strickland is his friend.

Videos have been spreading in the past of Sean Strickland training with Alex Pereira. Both trained for a long time, becoming more than team mates.

Many believe that Alex Pereira shared experiences he got from losing to Adesanya with his friend who was likely to meet the same fate. Also, because Alex Pereira had no rematch with Israel Adesanya after the contest, he had no opening to use his afterthoughts following the match.

During the last match Pereira had with Israel Adesanya, Adesanya won with a good control of distance, and concentrated most of his attacks on kicking any leg Pereira placed in the front, which was mostly the left leg.

This continued until the leg was too painful to support someone going in for a punch, kept Pereira being careful not to be kicked again on it, and gave Israel Adesanya chances to throw in good combinations of blows. The victory was so easy that Israel Adesanya once said he had made tough people look easy before, while boasting of what he would do to Strickland and UFC 293.

Who would have told Adesanya that Strickland would come into the octagon and make him look to easy? It was Robert Whittaker that threw good light on the tactics Sean Strickland used.

‘I see a lot of things popping up saying that Izzy looked off,’ Whittaker said, trying to convince fans that Adesanya tried all he could. ‘I don’t think he had an off night. He looked off because Sean shut him down.

‘Izzy wasn’t given any space in the open floor to do any of his tricky kicks. He wasn’t given any space to work any of his flinch games with his punches. He wasn’t given the chance. Sean was in his face from the first bell ring.’

Whittaker went in-depth.

‘Strickland had an answer for every one of Izzy’s techniques. For every one of Izzy’s strengths, Strickland had an answer. He was cutting off the cage perfectly, he was in that threat space where Izzy’s leg kicks were taken out of concern. Strickland, his defensive game was on point.

‘With Izzy throwing those looping shots as he kind of rope-a-dopes on the fence there, Strickland was patient, just always keeping Izzy on the backfoot, which was taking out of his gas. And, mate, he just kept it consistent from the very first second of the fight to the 25th. It was honestly a great performance from Strickland.’

That was a correct analysis of the match. Adesanya was put out of his comfort zone, just as he did to the former champion. But who told him what to do? Alex Pereira recently refuted claims that pointed at him.

‘I noticed in the comments (of a past video) that a lot of you guys were saying that I was backing Sean Strickland just because we’re buddies now, because I trained with him so naturally I got to support him.

‘I couldn’t separate my personal feelings from business. But here’s what I told you guys: I spent a few days training with Sean Strickland, and I got to see how talented he is, strategies, how tough he is. I got a better understanding of this from training than from actually fighting him.

‘It was totally different because anyone who trains, who fights, knows how it is. … That’s why I was so sure he was going to win. Another thing, there are so many people saying, ‘Oh, Sean Strickland trained with Pereira, and that’s why he won.’ But hey, let me clarify: I had nothing to do with it, OK? He won on his own.

‘It’s totally his success because he’s such a dedicated guy with a unique style, and he really showed us what he’s got in his fight with Adesanya. So, the credit is all his. I had nothing to do with it despite the days he spent training with me.’

It is expected of team members to say that of each other. Also, they are really good friends.

UFC president, Dana White said there would be a rematch. No sentiment might be able to change his mind.

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