UFC on ESPN 48 Aftermath: What Makes Sean Strickland So Difficult

After last Saturday night, Sean Strickland has once again shown that he is not the path to the title for any up-and-coming middleweight contender. His second-round knockout of Abusupiyan Magomedov was nothing short of spectacular and the adjustments made between rounds by Strickland and his corner were fantastic. On today’s Aftermath edition, we are going to look at how Strickland changed his approach after Round 1 and how it led to a completely different looking fight.

Round 1: Getting Backed Up

In the first round, Magomedov managed to work out that Strickland’s longest weapon is his jab. To take that jab away, Magomedov used a longer weapon: the push kick/teep. The entire first round saw Magomedov marching forward, pushing Strickland back with the teep and Strickland getting battered in the legs.

In fact, the stats between the two rounds couldn’t be any more different. Round 1 saw Magomedov land 32 of 60 strikes according to official statistics. He also landed 9-of-9 low kicks with all of his strikes coming from a distance. Roll through Round 2 and we see the script flip with Strickland going 70 of 140 in total strikes, 56 of those coming at range. Magomedov only threw and landed one low kick. How did Strickland change this? What made him so much more effective and what shocked Magomedov so much that it allowed Strickland to not turn the tide, but hit Magomedov with a tsunami of role reversal in the fight so quickly?

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First thing to talk about is how hard Sean Strickland is to hit. He doesn’t look like he’s that deceptive and often gets a bad rap because of how easily Alex Pereira set him up for a knockout. But Strickland, with his half-hearted Philly Shell/shoulder roll offensive approach, Strickland often gets in the way of oncoming attacks and parries them away.

Part of the shoulder roll, as seen in the gif above, is parrying away strikes, not just rolling with punches like a lot of people think. We can see in our first diagram that Strickland, while he doesn’t get behind the lead shoulder quite like you’d like to see from someone in the Philly shell, does parry away strikes. Magomedov (1) throws a huge right hand. Strickland sees it coming from a mile away and will look to stop that in it’s tracks by (2) framing off the bicep of the oncoming punch. After blocking this, the logical next punch is coming from the left, and Magomedov is tired. This means that either he will punch again or he will back off. He punches again, predictably. (3) The left hook comes flying in and Strickland backs up and swats away the strike with his right hand.

While this isn’t the most picture-perfect example of blocking and parrying from the Philly shell, it does demonstrate how Strickland makes life miserable for fighters who want to throw heavy. He has a good set of eyes on him and sees punches coming. He also gets in the way of these punches. Often they will land but not after some obstruction from Strickland, taking the wind out of a lot of the sails. Other times, he blocks them completely, as seen above. Whiffing on punches like this zaps the gas tank and Strickland would reap these benefits for the rest of the fight.

Near the end of the first round, Magomedov scored a takedown on Strickland, something that is quite difficult as well. Magomedov had to shoot the double, get pulled up, and then go for the trip. There, he was forced to control Strickland only for Strickland to pop up against the fence. All of that effort out of Magomedov for 23 seconds of control time. Once Strickland disengaged, Magomedov was visibly exhausted and breathing with his mouth open. This is when Strickland started to come forward and land the right cross. Those last few seconds of control standing from Strickland are overlooked in this fight because of how good of a round Magomedov put on. But make no mistake about it, Strickland took over the fight from the moment he exited the clinch from that takedown at the end of Round 1.

Taking Control, Listening to Your Corner

In between rounds, Strickland’s corner pointed out that Magomedov had been dipping to his right and that it was prime for punishment. If you read Beforemath leading into this fight, you will remember that we talked about the double jab being a great weapon for Sean Strickland. Here’s the excerpt:

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“Doubling up on the jab, as seen in the above animation, will do Strickland well. Getting Magomedov to flinch on the first and lean back will provide an option for Strickland to come behind with a second one and even a cross. Magomedov will come forward. That’s what he’s always done. Strickland will have to stay off of the fence and circle out from Magomedov’s forward pursuit.”

Lo and behold, at the very beginning of round two, Strickland lands a huge 1-1-2, doubling up on the jab, and landing the cross as Magomedov dips off from the two jabs.

If you look at nearly the beginning of the second round, just as his corner said, the dip is there and so is the cross. (1) Sean Strickland throws out a jab but it doesn’t land, but that’s not what matters here. Notice where his feet are in this exchange as opposed to the next frame (2). On the second jab, Strickland has hopped into range with Magomedov and the strike gets a reaction out of Magomedov. He will dip to his right. (3) On that dip, Strickland lands a right cross over the top of the lead hand of Magomedov.

This strike may not have been the most picture-perfect example of the combination on the night, but the frame of reference as well as when it happened provides us with just as much insight. It was clear from this moment on that Strickland had sussed out Magomedov’s tendencies and was just now capitalizing on it. Later in the fight, as these right crosses would start to accumulate damage, Strickland would unload more and more punishment until he got the finish.

From that moment on, Strickland marched forward, pushing Abus Magomedov against the fence and landing offense. He repeatedly found the cross off Magomedov’s dip. Strickland slapped away the few kicks that Magomedov tried to throw to keep Strickland off of him. Strickland consistently cut the ring off, beating Magomedov from point to point and keeping the pressure on.

In the end, Magomedov didn’t want to be in there anymore as he walked away from Strickland, not even looking at him. There, Strickland landed the cross again while Magomedov wasn’t looking and knocked him down. A few moments of ground and pound later and Mark Smith, the referee for the occasion, had seen enough and called the fight off.

While it was a fantastic performance for Strickland, let’s be frank. Magomedov shouldn’t have been in there with a fighter like Strickland yet. I get that the UFC is on the lookout for new blood in the division. But not everyone is going to “Alex Pereira” Strickland. Nassourdine Imavov found that out the hard way. Magomedov found out in an even harder fashion. If the UFC wants new fighters to fight Israel Adesanya, book a number one contender fight with someone and Strickland and cross your fingers that Strickland can beat someone like Marvin Vettori.