Strickland SHOCKS Adesanya to become the NEW Middleweight Champion - UFC 293 RECAP - CBS Sports
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00:00 Sean Strickland is the new middleweight champion.
00:03 What just happened?
00:04 You know, to quote the late Jack Buck from Kirk Gibson's home run in the 88 World Series,
00:11 I don't believe what I just saw.
00:15 This is in some ways why we watch the sport or why we watch combat sports in general,
00:20 right?
00:21 The theater of the unexpected.
00:22 But here's what you have to understand with this specific upset.
00:26 You can't write this.
00:28 This isn't Leon Edwards knocking out Kamaru Usman with a fifth round head kick.
00:32 This isn't even Holly Holm overwhelming Ronda Rousey or even Matt Serra knocking out George
00:38 St. Pierre.
00:39 These are the shortlist items for the biggest upsets in UFC history.
00:45 This was a fighter in Sean Strickland who hadn't beaten the requisite number one contenders
00:50 to get this title shot and was really only here because Adesanya had so thoroughly cleaned
00:56 out the division, walking into the cage against arguably the greatest striker in UFC history
01:03 and out striking him over 25 minutes, thoroughly dismantling him, confusing him, leaving him
01:12 with no other options.
01:14 Upsets happen in combat sports.
01:16 It's a violent sport.
01:17 When we're talking about MMA, there are so many ways to lose.
01:21 This wasn't an errant punch, a head kick, a fluke, a cut.
01:25 This was the very definition of the old cliche that we always talk about in boxing.
01:31 Styles make fights.
01:33 Sean Strickland stood in front of Adesanya for the entire fight, backed him up to the
01:37 warning track of the octagon around the circle of the cage and constantly pressured him with
01:43 what?
01:44 Wild punches?
01:45 No.
01:46 With defense, with poise, with game planning from his extremely underrated trainer, Eric
01:51 Nixick, and we saw Sean Strickland, who had gone five championship rounds in four of his
01:57 last six fights, break off the performance, not just of his career.
02:02 He just went out there and painted a masterpiece against one of the greatest fighters in the
02:06 history of this sport, who just earlier this year won back his UFC middleweight title with
02:12 a resounding knockout against his career rival.
02:16 Stuff like this you can't predict.
02:18 All you can do is be humble.
02:19 And oh, by the way, he nearly did it in Izzy's backyard.
02:23 Izzy lives in New Zealand.
02:24 This was in Australia.
02:25 But this American road warrior, Sean Strickland, proved once and for all that you don't win
02:30 fights on paper.
02:32 You got to go in there and earn it the hard way.
02:34 Congratulations to the new middleweight champion of the world.
02:38 Well, and you saw a sign of things to come at the end of the first round, right?
02:42 He blitzes Adesanya up against the cage and essentially saved by the bell is Adesanya.
02:49 But also, BC, that fourth round was critical.
02:53 Absolutely.
02:55 Look, this entire fight was critical.
02:58 I'm still trying to put this in perspective, Hakim.
03:01 Look, here's the difference.
03:02 Ultimately, when we had handicapped this fight, we said horrible style matchup for Strickland.
03:06 Why?
03:07 Because Adesanya, whether he's walking you down or whether he's backing up and forming
03:11 this the spider web, right, to trap you in with clean counter shots.
03:15 He has the power, the technique, the creativity that you're never comfortable.
03:21 Strickland flipped the script on him, constantly pushing him back.
03:25 Only it was the defense of Sean Strickland using a modified Philly shell boxing style
03:30 that we've seen Floyd Mayweather do a million times.
03:33 It's so hard to pull off shoulders high defense, high and he bamboozled the most creative,
03:40 incredible striker we've ever seen.
03:43 Really knocked him out to end round one and then peaked in the championship rounds to
03:48 back up to swell the left eye of Adesanya.
03:54 Adesanya didn't get old overnight.
03:56 It didn't necessarily seem this was one style just completely dominating somebody in a scenario
04:03 where the odds makers made this a laughable line without a sign in nearly a seven to one
04:08 favorite for most of this build.
04:10 Yet again, it wasn't a lucky punch.
04:12 It wasn't a lucky kick.
04:13 It wasn't one dominant round.
04:15 Adesanya won round two on all three judges scorecards and that seemed correct.
04:19 But for the remainder of the 20 minutes of this championship fight, it was all Sean Strickland
04:24 all the time.
04:27 Hakeem, what do you want from me?
04:31 What do I say here?
04:32 I've seen upsets come and go.
04:34 I've never seen one quite like this.
04:36 It's incredible to watch live sports.
04:39 This is why we watch, right?
04:40 For these moments, for the stuff that happens like this, Sean Strickland going into the
04:45 octagon, pulling off the massive upset, plus 520 on the money line going in.
04:51 And you look at Adesanya, right?
04:53 He comes in saying, look, he's a dangerous man.
04:55 He's got nothing to lose, everything to gain.
04:58 This is, you know, trying to continue to pad his legacy.
05:01 We already know that Adesanya is one of the greatest fighters in UFC history.
05:05 What did he do wrong?
05:07 What was, from your perspective, what caused him, because he looked like he was not on
05:12 the offensive for very much of this fight.
05:15 Yeah, look, he was backed up in an uncomfortable position.
05:19 Strickland has a awkward style to begin with.
05:21 But like I mentioned earlier, it's the pressure mixed with the defense.
05:25 Adesanya's got a history of fighting just fine when he's moving backwards.
05:30 Why?
05:31 Because his pinpoint counter striking is so accurate and so powerful that he instantly
05:35 disciplines his opponents and forces them to take, to take a step back and reset.
05:41 Strickland was on him throughout, but was not there to be hit.
05:44 And that's the key.
05:45 Very smart, defensive head movement, a high guard with his hands that was constantly moving.
05:50 And what we ended up saw, look, if he, if he came in here and out wrestled out of Sonia,
05:54 you would say, okay, that's always been a hole in the great Adesanya's game.
05:58 Doesn't look to take the fight to the ground.
06:00 Yes.
06:01 He's got good takedown defense, but that's a vulnerable area in his game.
06:05 So Strickland beat him exactly in the areas where Adesanya normally dominates.
06:11 So I will call it a little bit of a lack of urgency in Adesanya, especially in the championship
06:16 rounds that I didn't love.
06:17 But the reason why that was there is because he's used to having his way.
06:22 When he decides to walk you down, he's used to setting traps and making you pay with the
06:26 type of punches that end the fights.
06:29 Don't remember go rewatch the rematch with Alex Padada earlier this year in April, where
06:35 Adesanya scored one of the greatest comeback victories with a celebration for the ages.
06:40 Yet just a few months later, he had an opponent who we argued didn't belong in the cage across
06:47 from him out, thinking him out, smarting him out, executing him, hurting him, dropping
06:54 him and then raising that title.
06:56 And maybe it's the personality of Sean Strickland that makes this so extra unthinkable.
07:02 He's talked all week, even said in the way post weigh-in interview on Friday that for
07:06 you Australian fans for having my back this week, I'm going to welcome the CTE, the brain
07:11 trauma that's going to come from me walking into punches against Adesanya only.
07:17 It wasn't reckless.
07:18 It w it was poised.
07:20 It was perfection.
07:22 Sean Strickland painted a masterpiece on this evening.
07:26 Let's say the trainer's name one more time.
07:27 Eric Nix, take a master game planner in his corner.
07:31 They did it.
07:32 They did the impossible and it was not a fluke.
07:35 That's the thing that's so hard to bite down on, but for Adesanya, it wasn't his night
07:40 at all.
07:41 Yes, he did want win round two.
07:42 Yes.
07:43 He recovered nicely from being dropped and nearly finished at the end of round one, but
07:47 he was never able to recover from the shock of that and never able to put his offense
07:52 in first gear to force Sean Strickland to take backwards steps.
07:56 And when you have somebody pressuring you who has defensive responsibility and a gas
08:00 tank for days, like Strickland does, you can be a sneaky out.
08:04 I just want to remind people Strickland's a guy without a dominant wrestling game, without
08:09 one punch knockout power.
08:11 But what we underestimated was his poise.
08:14 And while he fooled us saying he was going to go out there and go for the knockout, his
08:17 execution on the big stage on the road in Australia, when it mattered most was championship
08:25 level execution.
08:27 And that's the reason why he's wearing UFC gold.
08:29 Well, he predicted this, right, BC?
08:31 He said, I'm going to embrace my inner Kelvin Gastelum.
08:34 He told us what he was going to do, and he went out and executed it.
08:38 And even you played the sound bite on morning combat, and Luke Thomas, your esteemed co-host,
08:43 said, I bleep and love that.
08:45 And this is what happens.
08:47 You bleeping love what ends up happening here.
08:49 Now for Adesanya, he was beginning the second reign as middleweight champ, lost to Alex
08:55 Padeta, won it back.
08:57 Does he perhaps follow that same path here?
08:59 We run it back with Sean Strickland.
09:01 Well, it's going to be very interesting for a few different reasons.
09:05 One, Drik Estopoulos, the rising middleweight out of South Africa, scored an upset victory
09:10 over former champion Robert Whitaker earlier this year.
09:13 And I thought maybe was the biggest middleweight upset I've ever seen in UFC history until
09:18 tonight.
09:19 What he did was seemingly secure a title shot, only he wasn't ready health-wise to turn around
09:23 so quickly.
09:24 He got passed over for this fight, and there's a feeling that rising stud Hamzat Chemaev,
09:29 who has now officially moved up to middleweight and has a big fight coming up against Paulo
09:33 Costa, could be next in line with a big win.
09:36 If you're UFC, we have seen in recent history sort of the benefit of the doubt given to
09:40 long reigning champions to give them that immediate rematch when they lose.
09:44 I think the difference in this case was Adesanya just lost his belt a year ago.
09:49 Yes, he won it back in that incredible rematch, but it might be time for new blood to be served
09:54 here at middleweight.
09:55 Hamzat Chemaev looks like a future star, almost face of the franchise, if he can break through
10:01 and get to the title level.
10:02 I mentioned Drakos Duplassy.
10:04 It may be time for the new guard to take over because Sean Strickland, once again, not a
10:09 fluke victory, not a lucky punch and knockout, a 25 minute audit of what used to make Israel
10:17 Adesanya so great.
10:19 In my opinion, when you are beaten that thoroughly, you don't deserve an immediate rematch, really,
10:24 no matter who you are.
10:25 Sean Strickland, in his first UFC title bout, wins the title.
10:30 The new middleweight champion upsetting Israel Adesanya.
10:34 Brian Campbell breaking it down for us here on CBS Sports HQ, BC.
10:38 Thanks.
10:39 Morning Combat, winners of Best MMA Programming, two years running, looking for a three-peat.
10:43 You can scan the QR code on your screen right now to vote.
10:46 Morning Combat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell.
10:48 Vote and follow today.
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