Israel Adesanya loses UFC title to Sean Strickland

Nigerian born Israel Adesanya will have to go back to the drawing board to avenge another loss on his record.

Adesanya was beaten in a lopsided decision by American Sean Strickland, who stymied his Kiwi adversary on his way to the win – all three judges scoring the fight 49-46 in his favour.

It wasn’t the best version the UFC octagon has seen of Adesanya, with UFC boss Dana White noting he looked flat and, at times, slow after the fact.

But Strickland had a big part to play in that with his forward pressure, willingness to engage with Adesanya on the feet and his awkward defensive style. The latter resembles a style referred to as a Philly shell in boxing, where a fighter keeps their lead shoulder high and rolls with punches.

Adesanya made a brief appearance at the post-event press conference, accepting that Strickland was the better man on the night, before handing over to City Kickboxing’s Eugene Bareman for a rare moment in which a coach holds court.

Bareman made no excuses, noting everything had gone well leading into the fight, but it was a frustrating night for Adesanya and his corner as they struggled to get on the same page.

“He came in, he had an off night,” Bareman said.

“He couldn’t see the same things we were seeing, we couldn’t make a good connection in the corner – it was just a frustrating night.”

Bareman credited Strickland for making it frustrating and said his team were very interested in an immediate rematch – which UFC boss Dana White said the promotion would be looking to do next.

“I asked Mick (Maynard, UFC matchmaker) if we could do the rematch next week,” Bareman said.

“I’m very confident we can change the outcome of this fight with a few very minor adjustments.

“You have nights like this, and I think we could do the rematch tomorrow and have a good night.”

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