MMA Fighting - HOAM | Welcome To the Sean Strickland Era — One Of the Most Wild Times In UFC History

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

It's three days after UFC 293, and it's still very real that Sean Strickland dominated Israel Adesanya in the main event of Saturday's pay-per-view in Sydney and is the undisputed UFC middleweight champion of the world. It's officially one of the most chaotic times in UFC history, which only makes things all that more interesting. On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck continues to react to Strickland's stunning title win over Adesanya, and what this all means for the division. Additionally, listener questions include if Adesanya will get an immediate rematch — and a case being made why that should not happen next — where Adesanya goes from Saturday night either way, who will be next for Strickland and why timing plays an important factor in the answer to that question, Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2 this Saturday in the main event of Noche UFC, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Network. Hello there, everybody. I am Mike Hack. And MMA is not real. It's just not real. I had to actually make sure three days later I wasn't dreaming. And in fact, I'm not dreaming. It is real. Sean Strickland is the UFC middleweight champion of the world. I'll say it again. Sean Strickland is the UFC middleweight champion of the world. And I have to say, you can say what you want about some of the things he says, how he acts, whatever. But I enjoy the chaos that this sport can bring. And to me, there is nothing more stunning, nothing more chaotic than what we saw on Saturday night. because Sean Strickland did not flash knock out of Sanya.

There was no banana peel. There was no fluke, no accidents, no nothing. Sean Strickland went to Sydney as a fan-freaking favorite, dropped Izzy in the first round, and then beat that man's ass for the rest of the fight. He may have lost round two. He lost round two on all three of the judges' scorecards. There was one round that was kind of called.

close, but I went back and rewatched it. Strickland, the judges all got it right. Sean Strickland won four of those rounds. This, to me, is one of the most impressive performances from a challenger that I have ever seen. This is just stunning. And the fact that this happened three days before the UFC and WWE merged together as one public company is the best. This is just the best. because it's just amazing how in this sport plans come to be.

And then after 29, 30 minutes of action, including the one minute rests in between rounds, all the plans crumble. Because Sean Strickland, the man who was just brought in to help showcase Israel out of Sanya in Sydney. They built this card around Israel out of Sanja. Sanya. He's just going to go in there. He's going to cruise. He's going to walk through Sean Strickland and then he's going to go fight DDP or he's going to go fight Hamza Chamaia for they have all these plans laid out for the next 12 months. And then Sean Strickland said,

I don't give a shit about your plans. I'm going to beat that man's ass. And that knockdown in the first round changed everything. It was a snowball. Sean Strickland took round too off in my opinion after going back and rewatching it just to kind of refill everything. And then he just beat that ass. He just beat Israel Adasani's ass. It's insane. The whole thing is insane. And I love it so much.

I love this chaos so much. And there are people out there going through like some of the comments and stuff. They're like, oh, Mike's so mad that Israel out of Sadia lost. Listen, I was very confident, like 98% of the world that Israel Adasani would win this fight. I was exposed on Israel-A-Assani quite a bit from a betting perspective because I like to place bets or we do the watch parties. But tell me one moment throughout the build to this fight where I said, I hope Israel-A-Assadio wins this fight. Tell me one time where I didn't say it would be the most chaotic and almost funniest thing

that ever happened in the UFC if Sean Strickland wins the middleweight title. Tell me one time where I didn't say that I don't want to live in this world where Sean Strickland is the middle-weight champion because you know what you're never going to find it you're never going to find it and to me as someone who loves chaos in the sport i got exactly what i had hoped for everything's a scramble fest right now sean strickland is the champion already broke the fucking belts and had a duct tape pieces of it back together like all of this is incredible it is absolutely incredible and now there's a lot of talk about whether or not this is the biggest upset of all time the most stunning result of all time

To me, it's number two. And I've been saying it the whole time, Sean Strickland goes out and beats Israel out of Sanya. It's number two. I understand Ariel's point, as he talked about on the MA hour yesterday, that Matt Sera lands the flash knockout, GSP couldn't recover,

and it was like kind of a flashy thing. Well, Sean Strickland, this wasn't a flash knockout. This is just one-sided dominance, and it made it so stunning. It's nothing's going to beat Matt Serra beating GSP. That was just, that was frigging wild. And just the way that all came to be, Matt Serra earns a title shot going through the ultimate fighter. To me, he lost the final fight to get to that title fight, but he got a like a wonky decision and then won the title.

Like that to me is going to be number one forever. But this is the clear number two. This is the clear number two for me. And I love it. I love it so much. It's so incredible. We had a great time on the post-fight show, just reacting to it all. Maybe my favorite post-fight show ever.

We're laughing about it. And it's not like we're laughing because, like, in a disrespectful way, we're laughing because it's just always fun when the UFC has plans. And then a fighter just comes in and says, F your damn plans, I'm going to ruin everything. And it's incredible. Golly, is it incredible. I can't believe we are here.

on this Tuesday morning and Sean Strickland is the middleweight champion of the world. This sport rules. It's the friggin best. And you don't get this anywhere else. I love it so much. Congratulations to Sean Strickland, to Eric Nixick. Eric Nixick is the best coach in the world right now. He's one of the top three to four coaches in the history of the sport right now.

And if Francis is kind of somehow beats Tyson Fury, he's the greatest coach of all time. it's not even a debate. And you can make that argument right now that Eric Nixick is the greatest coach in the history of the sport. There is only like maybe three people in the world who could turn Sean Strickland

into a UFC champion. And Eric Nixick, damn it, he did it. So happy for them. I messaged Eric right after the fight. He got back to me. And I just texted him. I said,

congrats, man. The game is completely changed now, hasn't it? And he goes, yep, it sure has. and I love it. So congratulations to the team.

Israel Adasania, it's going to be real interesting to see where he goes. My whole thing with Izzy is just take a break, man. Take a break. People feel a certain way about Israel Adasania.

I feel like some of that flavor has kind of lessons. I think people are just, I'm not going to say they're sick of him, but he's just, he hasn't taken a break. He's just been there. And one of the most active guys in title fights all the time.

Like you can't, just like in pro wrestling, we can't miss you if you don't leave. And I think Israel on Assadi needs a refresh in a big way. Just take some time. And I know this. I know he wants to get out there and he wants to stay active and he wants to get in there and fight. And I totally get it.

But there comes a time in your career, especially with Izzy, who's 34, it's time to take a step back, take a break, let things play out. And when Izzy's ready to come back, if he wants to, they want to throw him into a title fight, fine. I know Dana White said after the event, he wants to see the rematch because he felt like Israel didn't look like himself. And to me, I think it took away from Sean's performance. You can't say that. This isn't about Israel looking bad. This is about Sean fighting, as I said on the previous show, an imperfectly perfect fight. Like the way you beat Israel, Asanaa, no one saw it this way. Sean's defense was incredible.

He stayed focused. He was patient. Izzy couldn't touch him. He couldn't touch him. Sean counter the counters. Slowed things down. I think Izzy expected him to be a lot more aggressive. Yes, he was in his face the whole time.

But he was just waiting on Izzy. He was waiting on Izzy. He would throw, when he was ready to go, he would throw a jab. And when Izzy was ready to counter, he punched him in the face with a big right hand over and over again. The teet kicks were great. everything about this performance was spectacular.

And to me, I have no interest in immediate rematch. Zero. Zero interest. Zero interest. Give DDP the title shot. Give the Hamzaa, Paul Costa winner the title shot. I don't care. It can't be easy.

It can't be easy. This was a performance that does not merit an immediate rematch. And this division is completely different now. We have so many guys in play. Robert Whitaker is suddenly back in the title picture. He's a win away from probably getting into that conversation. DDP has earned it. I don't think, I think he lost on this a little bit.

I don't think he's going to get it. I do think the Shemaya Costa winner is probably going to get the title shot. But DDP's right there. And if they just want to give it to him, I'm cool with that too. But like, it can't be Izzy. Izzy got knocked up by Pereira. He got an immediate rematch, won the belt back. And then just got, he got got got beat up for.

25 minutes by Sean Strickland. Take a break. Just kind of hide away. Relax with your family. And then in the summer of 2024, come back and fight again. Even longer. If you want to wait to like

the fall of 2024, cool. Because there's a lot of big fights you can do at 185. Right now with Sean Strickland is a champion. It opens things up in a way we haven't seen in such a long time. And the UFC should embrace this. And Izzy should embrace it.

Like heading into the fight. Like what else is there for Easy to do 185? Now take a break. Take a break. Come back. The division is going to look completely different. Things are going to be much more interesting. So, man, this is incredible.

This is just the best. Nice win for Alexander Volkov. The Ezekiel choke against Taito Ivasa. Medel Cop and Felipe Dos Santos had a great fight. Cop wins a unanimous decision. Then he said some things he probably shouldn't have said, but he apologized, so I'm over it. Justin Taffa knocks out Austin Lane in under 90 seconds. Tyson Pedro knocks out the pleasure man.

And just over two minutes, good win from Carlos Ulberg. Shout out to the referee tandem of Herb Dean and Mark Goddard for getting that right because Daun Jung tapped. They went to the replay. And Carlos Olberg gets a submission win. How about that? Cheppe Mariscall, Jack Jenkins. Fun fight. Chepe turned the tide a little bit and then kind of threw Jack Jenkins on his arm, nasty injury.

Chepe Mariscall now 2-0 inside the octagon. Jamie Malarkey got a little bit of a gift against John McDessie, but that was a fun fight. Malarkey wins a unanimous decision, Nazaret Hackperassian-inimiccision, Charles Ratkey, unanimous decision win. Gabriel Miranda and Kevin Jossette kicked things off with consecutive first-round rear-naked-chokes submission. So look, this is a one-fight card. All in all, maybe two if you want to count the co-made event. I mean, Alcott did a great job calling attention to the card,

but this is the Sean Strickland Power Hour. Sean Strickland is the man. He's the champion of the world. And I'm so happy we are living in this place right now because chaos is the best. It is the absolute best. So let's go to you guys. I'm so excited to talk about all this stuff

and get your thoughts on everything. So, Toke, kick us off, my man. Oh, there. My God, that was crazy. So again, I've used this analogy before, but I'm going to use it again. This is from everything, everywhere, all at once. This is the world where they have sausages for hands. Like, this is nuts. So, yeah, I'm going to say this, and I'm going to disagree with you with what the next

matchup is for Sean Strickland. I think the next matchup is whoever is ready in December. So I don't think it's going to be cost the Chimae of a winner. I don't think any of those are coming back in December. I think Sean Strickland is going to be co-main under the Shaw and O'Malley Chirovera fight. And whoever is ready there,

so I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be DDP, but whoever of that group that you mentioned before is ready, I think that's the fight. And then I want to end on a somber note just because I'm not going to be in this space for a long time. So a lot today. I have other things to do.

So I'm just going to say, Blood Diamond, go get some experience, some other place. I'm sorry. You made some improvements. They tried to give you kind of a bottom of the roster guy, and you still couldn't pull it off. I'm sorry, Blood Diamond. You're probably not long for the UFC world.

And Ratkey, watch your mouth next time. But anyways, that's it for me. Thank you. Yeah. I'm sure ESPN isn't thrilled with Mr. Racki, but, hey, got the job done. If I ended up being more fun than I thought it was going to be, I thought Racki was just going to run them over and I kind of did.

But there you go. Yeah, December's interesting. I mean, Sean would definitely do it. I mean, Sean would fight in Abu Dhabi if they asked him to, That's just the kind of guy he is. There's just so many fights that need to be made right now, though. We're still waiting on Leon Colby. Still waiting to figure out where the O'Malley Cheeto fight's going to go in December.

We don't know what's going on with Connor. We still got Yuri and Alex to get booked. So, I mean, look, you want to do it in December and just build on this momentum and do the Sean show? Not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea. But that December card is just, it's such a. mystery right now because we don't know what the hell is going to happen. But we'll see. We'll see. And we got some time. We got what five weeks or so before UFC 294, which by the way,

I'm pretty happy about that. I've been traveling a lot. We've done a, I feel like I've done a million watch parties in the last four months, which I love doing them, by the way. But even like GC and I were an agreement like I'm so glad we get like a five week break get a little breather to like catch up stay home for a bit it's been a busy summer August was insane and then we get right back to a watch party and then this next watch party is to be like a 3 p.m. Easter which I'm so excited about and then we lead right into 295 and 296 it's just going to be a wild stretch to end the year so yeah but if they want to do the Sean and Shaw show in December I'm down with I'm down with I'm and but we got to see what's going to happen.

If they're going to do December, then it's going to be DDP. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Suts. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every quality. qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western.

Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Atta Svalia, what's up, man? Yeah. So, first of all, I want to have, I want to say, amazing performance by Sean Strickland. I called it. I did say he can win this fight. If he used his fundamental, if he kept his guard, always kept it in a, you know, very clinch or pressure for position. And he exactly did that. I'm also very glad he just stuck to his guns yes he did break the game plan

you know his coaches did want trying to take artisan to the ground but I think for the better it worked for the most part him staying on the feet because he mentally and physically broke Arasania down now before I get to any questions I just want to ask

I just want to say about a few things to add to the convo So firstly, Arasania, he's one of my very faries, amazing champion. I think rather than the rematch, he needs to take at least a seven-and-term month break. Kind of what Kamaru Usman did this year, last year after he lost Leon. Recovery, heal up, replanning, revitalise how you want to move for your career, because he doesn't have much time left. Sean, in the meantime, I could see him fighting DDP,

or he will probably fight the winner Hamza of him. versus Costa. If Costa was to win next month, that fight actually makes sense on the interest level because, you know, Sean has already expressed interest in the past to fight Costa, and I think that was around back in March this year. If not, Hamza's a good fight. That also propels Hamza into an interesting position to fight for the title. If DDP doesn't get the title shot, I see the UFC trying to make him and Jared Kennear fight for number one contenders fight for. down the line and you know we'll see what happens i mean the middleweight division's very interesting right now it's kind of in the same spot um i will say the lightweight division was around the time

kabib in like kabib was just became the title winner in 2018 we know we had tony ferguson connor dustin porriere and like just other contenders who weren't that mix i see the same thing rather than with the middleweight um another thing i just want to say is regarding this whole situation with the fight. I just love how a lot of doubt is really overlooked Sean strictly because going to this fight

we saw how the fans were just really finding any way to diminish his game, dismiss his game, his fight IQ. Watching his last seven, eight fights, particularly his masterful performance again, Imov, his

performance again, Abouz, even how he performed against a cannon, despite losing and Jack Hamanston, I think he rarely has shown, like from my point of view, I got to really truly see how good of a fighter this man is, and with his understanding of crisp boxing, very good jiu-suitzoo, very good style of defense,

he has mastered the art of avoid taking serious damage that most fighters are not very, seem to be very prone to most of the time. And on that note, I'll leave it at that. I just have two questions to ask. How, based on, like, this situation with the middleweight, what would be some of the fights that, if you were the promoter right now,

what are some fights that you would like to see and, I guess, construct in terms of moving pieces around the division, who you will want ideally trying to get the number one contenders spot to fight for the title eventually? And my second question is, do you see Colby versus Leon happening for the November Cards too? That's all. Have a great day, man. Answer the second question. I have no idea at this point. I know Tim Simpson, the manager of Leon Edwards, told submission radio, it's going to be November, December.

So I do expect that flight to happen this year. just what I don't know when at this point I do not know when and then the rest of the middle-eight's again it's kind of hard to say without knowing who Sean's going to fight next it's almost impossible to kind of figure out but

because I do feel like I feel like the UFC's just going to do the rematch and like I just hate that idea so much but because if they go the rematch and like everything's off the table If they do the rematch, Strickus will fight Canaanir. And I think the Hamzok cost a winner just jumps over DDP, and that's kind of sucks. But if he is going to take a break and take some time off and they want Sean to turn around quick, it will be DDP. It's just so, it's so hard, man.

It's so tough to say. I do feel like the Hamzok Costa winner will get a title shot. I don't know if he'll be the next title shot, but the winner of that fight is probably not going to have to fight again. especially if Hamzaat wins. I don't know. It's really tough to say. You could do Whitaker Canaan Air again. That was a pretty fun fight when they fought the first time. But those are the guys right now.

It's Strickland, Izzy, DDP, Whitaker, Can in the Air, Costa, and Hamzot. Those are the guys. Those are the guys. What a time. What a freaking time to live in. I love it. Yep.

What's up for on tonight? ever. Hey, heck of a morning. Just real quick, I wanted to get your thoughts on the Dana White post-fight press conference. Him and the reporter went on talking about the main event for about I think like five or six minutes. And it seemed like both of them were sort of giving Izzy a bunch of excuses as to why he lost instead of giving Sean Strickland, you know, his credit that he deserves because I personally didn't see anything wrong with Izzy. He did not look slow. He just looked like a man that was getting walked down by another, you know, fighter who was willing to throw some punches and take over the fight. So I just wanted your quick thoughts on that, Mike.

So to be fair, I don't typically watch the Dana post-flight stuff. Like, I'll hear clips or whatever because as the pressors going on, like, we're wrapping up the watch party, packing up my shit, walking back to the hotel, and then I have like stuff to do to like kind of cap off the watch party coverage, either, you know, putting the audio on. the pod network and like finalizing that or you know we like to put the I have to go through and put all the timestamps on and that takes forever to find the moments of like when things happen and like big reactions happened uh and putting those out and then putting those on the pod and adding the ads to it so like by the time I finished that it's like Sean Strickland was like

up there talking so I missed pretty much all of it but I kind of got the gist of it I didn't hear the back and forth. But obviously I'm aware of what Dana said. Izzy looked slow, all that stuff. He didn't look like himself. And yeah, he didn't look like himself. But the reason for that is because Sean deaded him in the first, almost dead at him in the first round.

Sean landed the big right hand. Izzy was out to lunch when he landed that right hand. And then Sean just hit him with like a million left hands over and over again. And to Izzy's credit, he was able to survive and put the thumb up. Mark Goddor was the ref and I thought he was going to step in there and stop it and he was also the

he was the ref for the Pereira fight as well so he gave Izzy a chance which you got to give him some credit for because Izzy didn't have some great things to say about him after the first Pereira fight and then Goddard was sort of in a position where

things are kind of off with at least how Al Jermaine Sterling feels that there were a lot of people on the show the Tuesday after Sean Amalley won the title that felt like the stoppage was a little too quick and Aljo deserved more time to recover. So credit to Mark Goddard for letting that go. We're having a whole different conversation on this Tuesday. If that fight is stopped while Izzy is standing and he complains about it,

we're talking more about fluky, bad stoppage as opposed to what actually happened was Sean just beat his ass for 25 minutes. And yeah, Izzy wasn't the same. same dude, but it's because Sean made him that way. It's not because Izzy just showed up and had a bad night. Izzy was fighting the Izzy fight for four minutes and 30 seconds, and then he got dropped real bad and almost finished. And I don't think Izzy ever recovered from that. And that's all credit to Sean Strickland. That is nothing to do with Izzy being slow or having an off night or whatever. All the credit goes to Sean Strickland. That's it. That's it.

Izzy showed up real quick at the presser, said, The Better Man won tonight. That's what you're supposed to say. But I really hope Izzy just takes a break, man. He needs to recover. He needs to take a break. Just get away from M.A. for a while. Get away from it.

Look at Colby. Colby left for a year. Colby left, and it wasn't like he, Colby didn't just leave M.M.A. for a year. He, like, left the public. eye for a year. After he beat Mazadol and everything happens with that thing

in Miami Beach, like Colby just disappeared, vanished off the face of the earth, and then stepped on a scale and everyone's like, oh shit, Colby's back. And Colby ended up getting a title shot and everyone went bananas. There's nothing wrong with

vanishing and then coming back. Let us, let people just be like, oh yeah, it's Izzy. He had a great run. second best middle weight of all time. Usually we see him every three months, and now we're waiting nine months to a year to see him again. Like, there's nothing wrong with that.

I think they'll actually help him at this point. CV, go ahead. Hey, Mike, talk of a morning. I want to talk about Alex Pereira. Just a couple questions. In hindsight, I know he wanted to move to light heavyweight after their second MMA fight. But in hindsight,

Do you think they should have just ran the Izzy Alex trilogy? If like, you know, it's hard to tell that, I mean, it's hard to like predict that this would happen. Like, Izzy losing his title again. But do you think they should have ran that back when it was hot? And I asked this seriously if Izzy wants to. Do you think Alex would help Izzy train for the Strickland rematch? If they do run that back, thank you. no i don't i it just i don't i don't know prayer doesn't seem like that kind of guy

it's going to like double dip in these situations so um there's this notion that people are talking about that like alex wouldn't fight sean again and i completely disagree with that i think alex would absolutely fight john strickland again even though they've worked together and have built some kind of bond but like sean shon shon strickland's trained in a million places so and you think sean's gonna be like no Alex Pereira helped me get ready for for Izzy and I trained with him a few times so I'm not going to fight him no Sean will be like

I'll punch that dude right in the face you knock me out the first time trying to knock me out again that's how Sean's gonna treat it but Pereira's already got a title shot so and should they've run that one back I felt they I felt they should have like at the time

but Alex went up to 205 he beat Janbovich he's about to fight for the light heavyweight title I actually kind of think this story is a little more interesting. And we could still do that fight. And I think that's part of the reason why he moved to 205 because the new Izzy was going to go up. And if Alex Perrower wins the light heavyweight title,

Izzy could just go up to 205 and fight him because the UFC will make that fight in five seconds, no matter who's the top due to 205. So, yeah, after 287, I was like, yeah, they should just do one more time because there was nobody there. This is before we got DDP and Whitaker and all these other things. before like DDP Izzy got really cooking.

We didn't know where Humzaa was. There was like nothing really going on at 185 at the time. So at the moment, yes. But then as things played out, this actually worked out better. This worked out better for everybody. Let's go to Cole. We'll go to Four Corner Sports. We'll get to everybody.

Cole, go ahead. Hi, Mike. I really don't have anything crazy, but I just want your thoughts. Like, what was going to your head when Izzy's just, like, not really throwing back and just keeps getting backed up by Izzy or by Sean? Like, what were you thinking when Izzy's just kind of being stagnant the whole fight? That's all I got. He wasn't stagnant. I mean, he was, but it's because Sean killed him in the first round.

That's why. This wasn't, like, to me, I'm not looking at this like, well, Izzy was just, he had a bad night. He didn't show up. He showed up. And then Sean punched him the face. really, really, really hard and then punched him in the face 35 more times really, really, really hard. And Izzy just wasn't the same. So, yeah, he was stagnant, but he got hit hard.

And I don't think you ever fully recovered from it. I really don't. I really don't. I'm curious to see, like, what happened there. I don't know if there's, like, some sort of injury, maybe shook and, like, broke a bone in his face or something. Like, I don't know. But even still, you can't use that as an excuse. Sean heard him real bad in that first round.

Sean was putting everything in those punches. If you watch that clip, it's just he's throwing everything he's got. You can hear the grunts. And he was just overwhelming, is he? But man, just kind of going back and looking at round five of this fight and then looking at round five of the Kelvin Gasolam fight, it's just two different guys. Like, he was broke.

Sean broke him. Like, Sean broke him. And Gasolin tried to break Izzy, but all he did was fire up, Izzy in that fifth round. You see Izzy saying, like, I'm willing to die in here, telling himself, I'm willing to die in here. That energy was gone. There was none of that energy on Saturday night because Sean had his number. And I think deep down Izzy knew it. And even Izzy between round four and round five, is telling us, telling Eugene, telling his corners, I can't hit him.

I can't find my jab. Nothing's working. All credit to Sean Strickland. That first round was wild. Go ahead, Four Corners Sports. Hey, Mike. So I was looking at the fight, and I was comparing these two fights, both combat sports, but obviously two different types of combat.

Obviously, Strickland versus Adasania. And I felt like Nixik had Strickland followed this. similar game plan that and I was comparing it because I actually saw this fight the other day because I was just like doing like tape study of Floyd Mayweather versus Connollo because if you actually rewatch that fight Floyd Mayweather senior actually tells Floyd Mayweather to pressure and walk forward to Canola Alvarez and what ended up happening canelo had a terrible performance he ended up missing over a hundred plus strikes towards the head of Mayweather which allowed Canelo's to get tired and his, you know, his accuracy was terrible. What happened in

the Adasania fight? Strickland ended up pressuring forward. Adasania, who was very calculated, you know, missed a whole bunch of punches in kicks. He said he couldn't find his jab. Strickland was able to pressure him, making sure that he was backing down, going on the back foot. And if anybody knows how hard it is to backpedal for that far, it is immensely tough. And that's why you saw that Strickland didn't break up sweat. And Adesani looked like he doused himself with baby oil. And I believe on the graphic, I think I had shown that Adasania had missed. I only landed, I think it was like 11% of his head strikes.

And I felt like that was something that maybe Nixig had probably worked in with Strickland. You know, just be more of a pressure fighter, make sure Adasani feels uncomfortable. He couldn't utilize his kicks. You know, Yonisani was able to utilize his kicks when he was able to stand stagnant. but overall, excellent game plan by Strickland. I really do think that this was, you know, like top tier stuff that, you know, Nixick ended up doing. I feel like he is in the Mount Rushmore.

I still favor Javier Mendez just because of what he's able to do with his pedigree, with Kormier, King, you know, Islam, Habib, Luke Rockhold. I still favor Mendez, you know, as the top coach, in my opinion, but that's, you know, that's for up for debate. But as for Strickland, I want to say, you know, don't count down Whitaker. I can see the USC, you know, saying like a big FU to DDP for declining the fight. And I felt like he was one of the biggest losers. I think Adasania, I think he shouldn't come back until USC 300, make his debut, his return, you know, for that date.

I think there would be a banker, you know, put him in with, you know, whether if Strickland's holding the belt or whatnot. and I kind of saw some rumblings of Connem or Gregor saying that he wants to fight at 185. I mean, because I think he feels like it's a favorable matchup for him to fight Sean Strickland. I know that people are going to huff and puff about that type of stuff, but, you know, it's just one of those things where I feel like, you know what? Strickland has, you know, a whole caveat of different fighters at his disposal who want to fight him now. That's all I got to say. No, Conner's not fighting strong Strickland at 185.

Let's stop this. Stop it. Stop it. He's got to fight Chandler. He's down one. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.

God, no. Absolutely not. Not a million years. Should he fight a UFC 300? No. No. He shouldn't fight at UFC 300. He should fight at like international fight week at the earliest.

He needs to take a breather. He needs to leave. And he needs his team to tell him, dude relax you can still headline international fight week and it's a big deal we don't they don't need them for 300 they don't they do not so no and yes it does create a lot of opportunity at 85 there's Whitaker's in play he's not going to get a title shot he's going to have to win a fight but he's i mean he was dead in the like after the ddp loss he was dead in the water he was dead in the water and now sean strickland has brought

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and other part of quick. Procurre you these formats and mini regrouped for a better

quality of free. In line on C4 .C or a magazine. Let's bring in King

Kat. Are you there? Good, how are you? I'm doing good. I'm changing subjects here. I want to know

what your thoughts are on this weekend's fight between Valentina and Alexa Grasso. I watched an

interview that James lynched in with Valentina. She seemed really focused. Like right after the fight, she was kind of dismissing Alexa a little bit, but she seems a lot more focused now on James was asking her about, you know, what's next after this? And she's like, I don't know.

I just want to focus on this fight. So who do you have in that fight? And then completely off topic, but I was just looking at her Instagram, and she hasn't really posted anything. But do you know when Jiraine Durandami is coming back? Thanks, Spike. Um, GDR, from what I understand, uh, looking at like the end of the year, maybe November, December for GDR.

So that, that's possible. Uh, it seems like that's what she wants. Let me see. This, this, uh, Grasso-Shikchenko fight is really interesting. Because Alexa answered, like, a ton of questions in that first fight. about being able to match Valentina's physicality. Oh, man. Like, I have to lead, like, I'm just looking at it from a betting percent. Like, here's how I'm viewing this, okay?

Grasso is the plus 140 dog. I'm going, like, the magical money wizard has dropped a $20 bill, and the only thing I could do with this is bet on this fight. I'm betting on Alex Grasso, 100%. Getting the value, getting the fact that she already finished Valentina, getting the fact that she was able to, I mean, and she might have been losing the fight before that happened. I don't know.

It's close. But I don't know. Sometimes a fighter just has your number and maybe Alexa has it, but this is a super interesting fight. It's a really interesting fight. And it's kind of getting lost in the shuffle with all of the Sean Strickland stuff. We get a title fight for free on Saturday. Probably get like a top to bottom like better card on Saturday for free than we had

on Saturday. Because Saturday, like, if you really want to look at it, it was a one-fight card, and most people felt like Izzy was just going to walk through Sean Strickland, and it was just going to either be, is he killing him in two rounds, or is he doing the Canaan Air thing and just outpointing him for 25 minutes? But Sean Strickland's like, nope, I don't listen to any of that shit, and it was great. So, but yeah, I'm really interested in this fight, really interested, really interested to see if Shepchenko can bounce back.

and really interested to see where this division goes, because, I mean, a lot of it's going to depend on this fight. It's a lot that's going to depend on this fight. If Grasso wins, I think Aaron Blanchfield is going to get the title shot. And if Chichenko wins, I think they're going to do it again. And I think they'll do Blanchfield versus Manon Fioro, and we'll go from there. But golly, man, this is a big fight.

I'm looking forward to it. But it's one of those things we're going to have to wait to, like, Friday to get super excited, because we're going to be talking about Sean Strickland, like through Thursday at this point, because of how incredible this moment was. Out of nowhere this moment was. Henderson, go ahead, my man. Hey, Mike. Great show so far.

And, I mean, what a crazy weekend of fights. I feel, just like you, I felt the vibes. When that Australian dude, Jenkins or whatever, when he got out by injury, I was like, oh things are starting to go weird now and then uh once uh once there was all the homophobic stars flying and things were looking bleak i knew it was the night of the shone and uh he really came back from honestly he looked super nervous all the way into this fight but also like you said he had nothing to lose and there's a video that's come out of him training with alex uh prera and one thing that it seems like they were working out of it was working out of it was working out of it's

is that Sean like is so good about parrying strikes, blocking any strikes the head. And I was going to talk about that a little bit more too. But it seems like Alex was just telling him when you counter punch, don't be trying to block and counterpunch at the same time. You know, don't be trying to dodge Izzy strikes when you're also trying to throw a counter. And that seems to be just what he did in that first round was that. Izzy really felt like, oh, he threw a jab. He'll probably try and block this kick or something, block this punch.

No, he was trying to throw it straight. And he got him right off, right off the start. And then, like you said, I think Izzy has kind of lost some of his fire. And when things started to go wrong, it maybe became more about, I don't want to get knocked out, you know? So he didn't get knocked out. And, I mean, he'll find a way to come back from this. maybe he should just take the time and move up and wait and use this time as like a break and also time to gain some weight. But one of the thing I want to mention is that I think someone who's not getting the credit that they deserve is the soldier of God himself, Yowell Romero, because when he fought Izzy, he really proved if you make Izzy lead the dance, it doesn't look as good as when Izzy can counter.

And Yel was blocking the strikes. he was pairing the strikes, but Yuel didn't have that element of marching forward, at least in that fight, he definitely didn't. And that allowed, is he to squeak out that weirdo decision. But Sean, if you keep advancing and blocking, eventually you're going to hit the cage.

And that really worked out for him. So just wanted to give those points and see if you saw any Yel Romero in the Sean victory there. It's so funny that, like, you mentioned that because even on the preview show, like I was laying out all these different scenarios that could happen. And by the end of it, by the end of the preview show on Friday, I was like, I'm starting to talk myself into this.

Like, not that I was picking Sean, but that I was like, you know what? I'm actually starting to prepare myself for this world. And if you watch the watch party on Saturday, as the night progressed, the vibes are getting up there. And I was starting to feel it. I was starting to feel it. I was like, oh, man, like it just feels like something weird.

weird's going to happen. Even throughout, like, I'm starting to feel like Sean's going to go out in 49, 46, Izzy. Like, it's just that kind of a weird vibe. And I had no insight. I had no technical breakdown. And you know me well enough to know. I'm not going to be like, I told you so. Because there was a complete vibes thing.

It was just what I was feeling at the time as the night progressed. Not as much as Sean O'Malley, because I said that a bunch too. Like the Sean O'Malley thing, like being in Boston during Fight Week before I headed out to New York on fight night, it just felt that it was in the air that Sean O'Malley is going to be undeniable. It just felt that way all week long, from the press conference to media day to the wayans, official and ceremonial. Like, it just felt like on that night, Sean O'Malley was not going to lose. I didn't have that same powerful feeling with this one, but this is more like, whoof,

it feels weird. It feels like something very weird is going to happen. Like chaos is going to ensue. And it did. And we're in a very much, we're in a much better place. We're in a much better place for it. I love when this stuff happens because you don't get it anywhere else. Football, it just, it could be hard. Like, look at Aaron Rogers. Just got reported. Aaron Rogers out for the year. In MMA, it's just the guy that no one thought could win could just go in there and win and do it in such dominant fashion.

And that's why this is the, just the best sport in the world. It's the best sport in the world. It's incredible. This is just all incredible. Daniel, go ahead. Hey, Mike. I could have a morning to you. Absolutely crazy weekend. Just still can't believe it. I mean, I'm just going to keep it short here. Over, under one and a half title defenses for Sean Strickland. Thanks, Mike. Oh, man. You're going to make me do this? Oh, man. I like, I don't know if I could. I'll say under, but like, I don't know. Like, we don't know. Like, we just, I just don't know. Maybe he turned the corner. Like maybe he has like officially turned the corner and maybe he will

be maybe he will defend the title like eight times in a row. You just don't know. But if I have to go on my gut right now, it kind of just depends on who he fights. Now if he fights Izzy again, I think he wins again. I think he wins again. I would pick him to win again. But if Izzy won like I wouldn't be shocked by it. If he fights DDP, I don't know if I had the same confidence. If he fights Costa, that's interesting. If he fights Shamiya, if Shemayev, if Shemayev just runs Paulo Costa and just slams him and taps him in a round, then, I mean, I would pick Shamaif against anybody. I'll say under, because worst case, he's going to get the Izzy fight, and I think he can win that one. And I think, honestly, these other fights are really tough for him.

But doesn't mean he can't win. I'm done just completely doubting the man. But you can say the same thing about Sean O'Malley. right now if you really break it down. And Strickland's just, Strickland's on the same place as O'Malley right now. Like O'Malley can really control what happens next. He can say, oh, I'm going to fight Cheeto Vera next.

And even though Marab is right there, and even though Corey Sanhagen has a case for a title shot, even though Algebra and Sterling has a case for a rematch, Sean O'Malley is a big enough star to be like, no, I'm just going to fight Cheeto. It's the biggest fight you can make. And Sean's just going to be like, I don't care who you tell me to fight.

I'm just going to fight them. So different paths are both guys, but I'll say under, but I am not confident in that after seeing this performance. We're trying to get Berserk in here. Hey, I just wanted to put in... What's going on? What's going on, guys? Can you guys hear me?

Hello? The wheel of doom continues to spin. Berserk, do we have you? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello. Hello. All right.

Yeah, I just wanted to put in a couple of words. And about the Izzy fight. I feel like Sean, he actually, you know, trained real hard for that fight. I heard he was actually training with Alex Pereer for that fight and Jalen Turner. And he was actually, yeah, I feel like Sean actually controlled the fight. Like, anybody he fights, he turns it into, like, a sparring match. And I feel like he had Izzy against, you know, like, his, like, back foot, like, throughout the whole fight. And to be honest, I really didn't expect Izzy to, like, lose.

But I thought Sean, I thought he would at least, like, knock out, Sean. But just like you said, I was feeling, like, a way little feeling throughout the whole fight. I feel like if you, like, an MMA fan, you know. when you feel that weird, weird a little feeling, you know, and something like, it's like that,

like that thought telling you, like take the underbet, but you just don't do it or whatever. But, um, regardless, yeah, I feel like I ain't taking nothing from strong, but I really feel like he,

he's going to have, like, a good run. And, yeah, if you really look at his fights throughout his whole career, he actually been putting in a lot of good work. So even what,

Alex Perelli, he got caught weird if you really watch that fight. So, like, I feel like Sean Strickland is going to have a long run. Okay. He could. He could. It's very possible. And see, this is

one of those interesting times, because even on the preview shows, and can you imagine if Sean Strickland goes out there and has, like, a Cody Garbred on the cruise performance where he just because, like, I think I think, like, some people saw a world.

shot, just come out and let's a big shot. Not like we saw the first round, but a lot of people saw him just going to be dominating a year over 25 minutes. I just don't think that was the case. And even with the Garbrandt was going to be a lot of people who felt like

with the run, Cody Garbrand was on at the time, he was just going to knock him out. He was like silent on Dominic. He was big, Chris, miss, he was dancing around the cake. It was an incredible performer. One of the best challenges performances, kind of like this one, but in different ways.

Strickles is more of a workman-like performance, which you got to respect the hell out of it. But now one. That's the big question, because we saw what happened with Cody. Cody hasn't been the same sense. Got knocked up by T.G. Dillard twice. Lost and Rob Fond. Knocked up by Pedro. Like, just kept getting knocked out.

Knocked up by Kigar, France. Wednesday, not so memorable decision against Trevin Jones. And he just hasn't been the same guy after having that performance. It's kind of explained how high everybody was on Cody Garbrand at the time after that win. And now we'll see. Sean goes up that fights DDP. It does the same in the GDP. Then it, this isn't just like chaos.

This is the man who's in the corner. So maybe he does go in a long run. Maybe that's what happens. Sean Strickland would be the second greatest middleweight of all time. And somebody said something earlier about, you know, what if it comes back and like when Serena Raoul? Can he be? No, that conversation is over.

The conversation is over. Anderson Silva is the greatest middleweight of all time. The fact that we're doing this and Sean Al Sheld has said it just absolutely beautifully on the post-show, we have to stop jumping on this. well, if he wins, is he the greatest of all time. One that's disrespectful to the guys in the generation before that. And two, you're putting just so much unnecessary pressure on the fighter trying to cement their legacies themselves.

We did it with Kamar Usman. We did it with Israel Adasanya. And like I've said on the show a million times, both those guys were nowhere near being. the being the goats. They needed like five more wins each. Like Usman was way too soon, way too soon. Is he? Yeah, you can say he's the second best right now. That's fine. You can make that case and it's fine. But he was still so far away from Anderson. Anderson won 10 in a row before the Chris Weidman fights. Ten title defenses in a row. You know how hard that is? You know how difficult that is?

I don't know if we're ever going to see that again in this sport. Someone winning a belt and defending it 10 times in a row. I don't know if we're going to see it. We have to stop this. Ladies and Jim, we have to stop this. Oh, they defended the title three times in a row. Are they the goat? No.

No, it's too soon. There's no need to put that extra pressure on. Now, if they get to eight, different conversation. They get to nine in a row. yeah, we could start talking about it. Remember when DJ went on that run? We weren't even talking about DJ being in that conversation until he got to the record. And now it's just like you defend the title three times in a row.

And oh, it's a time to start talking about that he's the greatest of all time in this division. We got to pump the brakes on that stuff. We got to pump the brakes on that stuff. Let's go to Joe. Joe, hello. Hey, what's up, Mike? I had a really, really good time Saturday. The whole main card was awesome.

But I know it sounds funny as hell, but what I will say is, and I'm not trying to take anything away from Sean. I've actually been defending him a lot on social media saying he did what he had to do to get that dub. But did you feel like leading into the fight in the press conferences and all that stuff that we didn't see the same persona that Izzy always portrays in the pressers and in the lead-up to the fight. I just felt that, I don't know, there was something different about him. And then in the interview before, you know how like when we see people that have like really bad weight cuts, they look really drained? I don't think I saw that with Izzy, but he had that facial expression that people normally have.

I think it was when he had an interview with the Megan Olivie or someone else, I couldn't remember. but I don't know, just want to get your thoughts on that, man. And have a great day. I actually thought Sean looked worse than Izzy. I thought he looked a lot worse. You saw all the videos like coming out. What he was doing the way in show? He looked rough, like real rough.

So I don't know, man. Like maybe he's just, maybe it's the how Sean was acting. You know, maybe I don't know. Like, Sean isn't going to fall for any of it. There's no mental warfare against Sean Strickland. Like, there's nothing you're going to say that's going to rattle him. There's nothing you're going to say it's going to shut him up. Nothing's going to change who Sean is in Sean's focus and stuff.

And a lot of people are saying, like, oh, Sean looks so nervous coming out. And maybe you can attribute some of that to nerves. But that was a look on Sean's face that we never really see. Like when he walked out to fight Abus Vagam Adolf, that look of focus was not on his face. He was just like, yes, I get to go do what I love most, and that's punch people

in the face. When he walked out to fight Nasoride, same thing. Just, okay, go in the cage and fight people, because that's what I like to do. This was a different look. This was a, all right, the nerves are there, but if you talk to anyone who play sports, like, and even

whatever job you do, even when I do this show, like there are nerves before I go on a post-fight show or do the watch party. Like the nerves are there. It's not like the first one. First one was the whole different feeling. But like now the nerves are still there. And when you lose those nerves,

that's when like you feel things are wrong. And Sean just like had that look on his face where he's like, I ain't rattled by this moment at all. And oftentimes Izzy will fight guys that are rattled by the moment. I think you kind of saw it with Jared Tannen in the air. Like, he didn't want to be doing any of that shit. He didn't want to be doing the press conference and media days and stuff.

He just wanted to get to the fight. And there's more to just being a UFC fighter in a headline spot than just fighting. You've got to go and do all the interviews and you got to get asked the same questions over and over again. And that could be draining. And Sean was just like, I don't give a shit. Like, that's the job. I'm just going to do the job. So, no, I didn't really.

think Izzy was off. I think when you really noticed it is after he got knocked down and he just wasn't the same. So, I don't know. Maybe Izzy will come out and do something on his YouTube channel and explain himself what happened. I was really much

intrigued by him showing up to the post-fight press conference to hear what he had to say. And I actually don't blame him for just going in, saying a quick thing, and then turning over, turning it over to

Eugene. I think that was pretty smart. Izzy's got to kind of choose his words carefully and I don't think Izzy wants to take anything away from Sean. And anything he says is going to sound like an excuse.

And I think he's just trying to avoid that which I think is pretty smart. All right, Dylan, you're going to take us home, my man. Go ahead. Oh, okay. I was just wondering if a new mythical creature was born Saturday night and that's a girlfriend Sean Strickland. That's all.

Thanks, Mike. Ah, kind of wholesome Sean Strickland? Yeah, that was kind of cool, right? Seeing him like holding hands with his girlfriend and walking through Sydney and checking out the sights. That was kind of fun. Different side of shot. Maybe.

We could get wiped up Sean Strickland versus no surgery GDP next. Mythical creature versus mythical creature. The things we find in the sport. Absolutely incredible. All right, everybody. Well, I think we have talked about this, because we're never going to stop talking about this.

This is one of those moments that's going to live on forever. We got our tomorrow. BTLs will be super fun on Thursday reacting to all this. and then we get ready for NoJ UFC, so keep it locked MAP Fighting.com and we'll continue talking about Sean Strickland

being the freaking middleweight champion of the world. So thank you all very much. Back on Thursday here at 10 a.m. Easter, we'll do it again. Hopefully no power outages, but until then, everybody, enjoy the rest of your day

and as always, have a heck of a morning.