Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Here are the top four honorable mentions and winner of MMA Junkie’s “Submission of the Year” award for 2023.
With another action-packed year of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie takes a look at the best submissions from January to December. Here are the top five and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Year award for 2023.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice for Submission of the Year.
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Ahead of his first title defense at UFC 297, rewatch Sean Strickland’s masterclass vs. Israel Adesanya to claim middleweight gold.
The 2024 pay-per-view schedule will open with [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] defending his middleweight title for the first time at UFC 297, a reign that was made possible with one of the biggest upsets of the past year.
Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC), who meets Dricus Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in the Jan. 20 main event at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, captured the 185-pound belt with a stunning domination of [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] at UFC 293 in September.
Entering the fight as a giant underdog with minimal expectations, Strickland put on a near masterclass over the course of five rounds. He dropped two-time champ Adesanya in the first round, then used a methodical game plan of pressure and sharp defense to win a convincing unanimous decision and leave Australia with UFC gold.
Ahead of his first attempted defense of the strap against Du Plessis, the UFC has released the full fight video between Strickland and Adesanya, which you can watch above.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submission from September 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from September 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for September.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from September 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from September 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Fight of the Month award for September.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
Yoel Romero thinks Israel Adesanya’s activity caught up to him, and it showed in his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293.
[autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag]’s activity likely cost him against Sean Strickland.
Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) lost his middleweight belt in an upset unanimous decision loss to Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) last month at UFC 293. Prior to the defeat, Adesanya was coming off back-to-back title fights against Alex Pereira. Adesanya lost to Pereira by knockout at UFC 281 last November but later avenged his loss with a knockout of his own at UFC 287 in April.
Romero, who lost a lackluster decision to Adesanya in March 2020 at UFC 248, thinks the damage accumulated in both fights against Pereira factored into Adesanya’s performance against Strickland.
“What I think is right now, when you have a fight and you take the damage, like Alex make against Izzy, now Izzy has a little problem, not too much,” Romero said on the Overdogs Podcast. “That’s what I’m thinking. Now he’s scared a little bit because he needs more time to recover. When you take a lot of punches in one fight, you lose – no excuses. Maybe if he had more time to recover, the fight would be different. Believe me … when he lost to Alex, he took a lot of punches.”
Adesanya has been very active throughout his career, with his three title fights against Pereira and Strickland coming in less than a calendar year. Romero would like to see Adesanya get a rematch with Strickland, but not right away.
“If he’s (Du Plessis) good, that’s the guy he needs to fight,” Romero said of Strickland’s next opponent. “After this, ‘Killa Gorilla’ (Cannonier) and after this, the rematch with Izzy.”
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Eugene Bareman expects Israel Adesanya’s experience to help him regain the UFC middleweight title.
Eugene Bareman expects [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag]’s experience to help him regain the UFC middleweight title.
Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) lost his middleweight belt in a shocking unanimous decision loss to Sean Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) earlier this month at UFC 293.
Adesanya was knocked down late in Round 1, and was never really able to deal with Strickland’s pressure. But “The Stylebender” is no stranger to bouncing back. After losing his title to Alex Pereira by knockout at UFC 281, Adesanya rebounded in their rematch with a knockout of his own at UFC 287. Bareman credits Adesanya’s extensive combat sports experience for his ability to bounce back.
“This is not a normal athlete by any stretch – this is a unique athlete,” Bareman said in an interview with Combat TV. “I’m not talking about his physical and mental capabilities. I’m talking about over 100 fights at the highest level.
“No one else has these sorts of athletes because no one else has done the extensive work that we’ve done outside of MMA to gain this type of high-level experience. This is an athlete who’s seen everything, who’s had every type of game plan imposed on him, and every sort of adjustment, every sort of look he’s had in front of him.”
Bareman initially said they would only need a week to make adjustments. While he clarifies that he didn’t literally mean seven days, the City Kickboxing coach is confident that his star pupil can avenge his loss to Strickland if he’s awarded an immediate rematch.
“Sean brought something unique, and it was his awkwardness, and we thought we’d dealt with it,” Bareman said. “We have to do a better job at dealing with the style that he defends in and some of the intricacies he brings to the table. But, Israel’s seen everything. Not every athlete that gets to the UFC does – barely any of them do. None of them have 100 fights at the highest level.”
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Israel Adesanya breaks silence on his loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293.
[autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] finally discussed his loss of the UFC middleweight crown.
After not addressing questions from the media after his decision loss to Sean Strickland and leaving the UFC 293 post-fight press conference, Adesanya finally shared his thoughts on his YouTube channel.
Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC), who was beaten in shocking fashion by Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) earlier this month in the main event of UFC 293 in Australia, said he just wasn’t himself that night.
“Like a bad dream,” Adesanya said when asked about how he felt. “One of those where you, not even a nightmare. A nightmare is like, ‘Oh sh*t. F*ck.’ A nightmare, you’re scared. I was just like, you try to hit the guy, and it just felt like noodle arms. Like, ‘What the f*ck.’ It just felt like a bad dream.
“Feeling it and watching it were completely different. I called Eugene (Bareman) right after and we talked and the same thing. We’re quietly confident.”
On top of not feeling himself, Adesanya won’t shy away from acknowledging that Strickland and his coaches had a great game plan, and they executed it perfectly.
“I just wasn’t able to get my rhythm because of his pressure,” Adesanya said. “He was right there constantly. Whenever I was setting him up, because he was right there, his coach would help him out, and I would be like, ‘Fuck.’ Good game plan from them, but also for me, I wasn’t able to adjust on the fly. … It was his night. I was his night and yeah, he got it done. I made another dream come true.”
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As far as what’s next for Adesanya, the 35-year-old has no plans of retiring. In fact, he wants his belt back, but didn’t reveal when he’d like to return.
“We’ll see,” Adesanya said on a return. “No, the belt has never mattered to me. How many times have I said it’s just a fancy tiara? The belt is just a nice accessory. I already got belts. I got many belts. I’m going to do it again just for fun, just for fun.”
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Michael Bisping thinks Eric Nicksick is tactically targeting Jared Cannonier for Sean Strickland’s first title defense.
[autotag]Michael Bisping[/autotag] thinks Eric Nicksick is tactically targeting [autotag]Jared Cannonier[/autotag] for Sean Strickland’s first title defense.
Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) came up big as an underdog when he dethroned middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in a definitive unanimous decision win this past Saturday at UFC 293.
Strickland’s most recent loss came in a split decision to Cannonier (17-6 MMA, 10-6 UFC), when “The Killa Gorilla” edged him out in a five-round battle this past December. In a recent interview with The Schmo, Nicksick made a case for Cannonier to be next in line, and Bisping says there’s a reason for that.
“Sean Strickland’s coach, he wants the next person to be Jared Cannonier,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “He says, UFC obviously whatever they’re going to do, they’re going to do, but I said Jared Cannonier for a number of reasons. No. 1, he did beat us. Now of course, it was a split decision, but on that record, we got beat, and I think there were things that we didn’t do correctly in that fight that caused us to lose.'”
Outside of an Adesanya rematch, Strickland has options. There’s Cannonier, who called out Strickland for a title-shot rematch. Also campaigning for a shot is Dricus Du Plessis, as well as a pivotal middleweight clash between Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa which takes place at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.
But out of all the options, Bisping respectfully thinks Cannonier is being viewed as the easiest one for Strickland.
“Don’t take this the wrong way if you hear this, Mr. Eric Nicksick. It seems like they’re trying to pick him because, I don’t know, it was a split decision,” Bisping said. “A lot of people thought Sean Strickland won that fight, right, and Khamzat Chimaev is an absolute monster.
“Dricus Du Plessis is an absolute monster, and you never know. That might be the easiest fight, and that sounds insulting to Jared Cannonier. I’m not being insulting. What I’m saying is, they know they had a really close fight.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
Ben Askren was impressed with Sean Strickland’s title win, but doesn’t see it as the biggest upset ever.
[autotag]Ben Askren[/autotag] was impressed with [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag]’s title win, but doesn’t see it as the biggest upset ever.
Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) was a big underdog against middleweight champion [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) this past Saturday at UFC 293, and was ably to defy the odds with a definitive unanimous decision win.
Magic happened in Sydney 100 pay-per-views ago when [autotag]Holly Holm[/autotag] knocked out then undefeated bantamweight champ [autotag]Ronda Rousey[/autotag] at UFC 193. Strickland had a massive moment of his own, but Askren doesn’t think it surpasses Holm’s win.
“I don’t think this one tops Holly Holm over Ronda Rousey as the biggest upset of all time, and I think from a betting standpoint, that pencils also. (That fight was) also in Australia,” Askren said on Funky & The Champ. “I would look foolish, which happens sometimes, because I said, ‘I don’t see how Sean Strickland’s going to win.’
“I thought Sean Strickland was going to do what Sean Strickland did, which is try to walk him down and box him up. I thought there’s no way he’s going to do that for 25 minutes without getting clipped because Izzy’s got a lot of weapons. The fact that he would be able to do it for 25 minutes straight and not get clipped was so impressive.”
The narrative was that Strickland needed to mix his grappling in to have a chance against Adesanya. But Strickland didn’t even shoot once, and even knocked Adesanya down late in Round 1. He outstruck him over the course of 25 minutes.
“It was so impressive because Izzy’s tricky, he’s fast, he’s got a lot of tools – and Strickland shut everything down,” Askren said.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
Marvin Vettori thinks Israel Adesanya’s time on top is over.
[autotag]Marvin Vettori[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag]’s time on top is over.
Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) lost his middleweight title in an upset to [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) this past Saturday at UFC 293. “The Stylebender” was dropped in Round 1, and ended up losing a decisive unanimous decision.
It’s no secret that former foe Vettori is not an Adesanya fan, but like a few other analysts have said, he’d like to see the division move on.
“I just don’t like this guy. Can I not like this guy? I don’t f*cking like this guy, so I personally think that he doesn’t deserve a f*cking rematch,” Vettori said on the Dream Rare Podcast. “Why? I don’t even think he wants a rematch. He felt like – he’s going to lose again, so I don’t even think like he wants the rematch right now.
“I mean like let’s see what Sean will do as the champ. He shook up the division and I think (Dricus) Du Plessis is on the line. He beat up (Robert) Whittaker the way he did, you cannot deny him a f*cking title shot man, way more than Adesanya. I think that’s also a very good fight for Strickland.”
Vettori, who’s coming off a loss to Jared Cannonier, thinks “The Killa Gorilla” should also be in the running for a title shot. Cannonier weighed in as a backup for Strickland vs. Adesanya, and also holds a recent win over Strickland.
Regardless of who’s next for Strickland, Vettori thinks Adesanya’s time as middleweight champion is over.
“Oh! f*cking Jared – Jared too,” Vettori said. “They will come at me for sure: ‘You’re salty,’ this and that. I think Adesanya’s time is over. It’s passed, so we’ll see. But I don’t think that rematch would even sell. I don’t know. Definitely, I would be way more excited to see Strickland and Du Plessis or even a rematch with Cannonier, and down the road who f*cking knows.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
