explosive middleweight title fight is set to headline UFC 293 down under as
the UFC returns to Sydney Australia for the first time since 2017 Israel arasanya looking to defend his belt
after regaining it against his longtime Nemesis Alex perdeda he takes on the gritty Sean Strickland as always safe
side here for the big preview and Israel arasanya looks great when knocking out Alex padeta in Miami at UFC 287 Sean
Strickland looked great in his most recent win getting him this title fight he sure did let’s start with Israel out
of Sunny the champion already proven to be one of the best of his error his Dynamic striking has just captivated us
his footwork his championship IQ he is a real tough out for anybody who’s trying to get that middleweight Crown he takes
on the surging Sean Strickland who’s a tough out as well with his gritty demeanor his forward pressure his good
boxing he’s got that volume he just keeps on coming he’s shown he can fight in these five round fights can he go
down to Australia and upset the champion and Come Away with the belt can can’t wait to see it unfold Sean Strickland is
as experienced as maybe any fighter on the UFC roster let’s go into fight focus
and we’ll start with the Challenger here we’ve obviously done the X’s and O’s on Israel out of sound you quite a bit on this show the Striking is really where
Sean Strickland keeps it most of the time including in his recent win over a boost magomedov absolutely Sean
Strickland has a great jab it all starts right here and he’s a forward pressure fighter he likes to come forward and
come downhill he starts off just kind of touching and getting his feel but then
he gets that volume going and he starts putting those punches together that’s when he really hurts people so let’s just kind of take a look here I want to
start right here so he’s got this little Philly shell it’s kind of like a little modified Philly shell that he holds
keeps that one arm down here and keeps this hand tucked in right he likes to use that shoulder roll and get all that
going but the reason why this is important Brendan is when you watch him throw this jab he throws it from down
here and people kind of don’t see it I mean standing right in front of Brendan Allen you see comes right through the guard right because it’s always kind of
down here so he lands that jab he gets started and that’s kind of his offense but once he gets going man it all starts
coming first we got that jab we saw it coming from down here bam there’s one but let’s
watch his right hand he throws it right down the middle and he hits it right on the chin so he’s really good at locating
those straight shots he kind of keeps that jab going but once he starts getting that head rocking he adds that
too and he really does a lot of damage and that’s when we start seeing hurting people not really a power puncher but
once he starts Landing in numbers and getting his timing he’s very good at that tempo of catching somebody we’re
going to see this right here Here Comes Brennan coming in look at him size up that right hand and again look at this
impact right here all these punches are right on the jaw right he’s very good at
locating so he hurts Brennan here he’s going to follow this little slap hook kind of knock him down and he’s good at
finishing as well when he gets guys hurt he jumps on them taking Brennan Allen out was not an easy task and here we go
again we put this in here this is a great Striker right here
very very good at kicks right and the reason why we put this we know is he likes to kick but we see Sean right here
here’s the lead kick he lands the lead kick but Sean his eyes are up he’s he
doesn’t really care what he gets hit with we’ve seen this over and over he’ll just kind of walk through things so he’s
getting hit with a kick but as he’s getting hit with a kick he lands that right hand right on the chin kind of
starts the demise here of what’s going to be a TKO and we’ll see him follow there’s that sharp one too again and
there’s that one more one too to put him on his butt and we want to kind of show you what he does let’s take a look at
how he uses this forward pressure right so we see him walking him down right here
and we know that he’s going to try to escape this way right I mean he doesn’t want
Strickland bearing down on him he wants to clear and kind of reset and we see Strickland watch his footwork here I
want you to watch what he does with his feet here’s one step in front but he’s going to take a big step laterally right
here and this is not something that you see very much right it almost looks like he’s walking sideways because where is
he trying to go Brennan he’s trying to go to where his opponent is already going to be and he does this little
sideways Shuffle where he’ll Shuffle his feet and then reset the middle and here we see it again and in doing that he’s
going to line up his own shot so he’s reshuffled his feet now he steps back up and now he’s back in his fighting
position here comes the jab if you look at his feet now she’s directly in front so that little
side shuffle has gotten that right hand right in front of his opponent while his opponent is what he’s on the back foot
so his footwork even though it’s very simple he’s very good at cutting off the cage and he’s going to need this against
the champion because we know Israel likes to keep the range so once he gets that sidestep going and he gets in front of him then he can land that big right
hand right and he only has a 76 inch reach but he uses it very well not a
power puncher but he will put it together and he will find those finishes great at going downhill as well once he
starts absolutely steam absolutely look out on the other side Israel ought to sign you we know how good he is especially when it comes to the movement
and how hard he is to hit because of his range control absolutely and some of the best striking we’ve ever seen inside the
Octagon but his range control may be his best skill and he’s going to have a four inch reach advantage in this fight and I
look for him to use it let’s look at some of the things that he does to control range it’s really interesting so
we see Izzy he’s always got the hand and out here he’s he’s always trying to keep that length but let’s break it down what
is he really doing Brendan so we know he’s got an 80 inch reach we know Strickland has a 76 inch reach I think
Cannon here is about 77 and a half if I’m right so Izzy’s Got The Reach advantage and once he starts to get his
range and understand his reach let’s break down how he does this so whenever he gets that arm all the way extended he
knows he’s longer than the other guy so he’s in a position to strike and when the arm is fully extended we see this
from Izzy he will kick there’s the placement perfect front kick I know I’m far enough away where you can’t touch me
I’m 80 inches right here you’re not even in my zone my arm is fully extended so I know I can touch you with the legs so
there we see a nice placed front kick well done for mizzy so then we come back
let’s watch that lead hand again so now that lead hands all the way out but I want you to pay attention to this
elbow right here I want you to watch his elbow and when I was breaking down the tape every time I break down easy I
learned something new watch what he does once this elbow starts to get bent right here and that long arm gets in now it
becomes punch range so when we’re full extension we’re kick range but once you start to bend that perimeter right it’s
like a perimeter now he goes to punch range and you’re going to see he’s going to fire this left hand right here
he knows that Cannon here is coming in right Canon air kind of gets out of the way but it shows us kind of that range
finder from Izzy now we’re going to see canonier he wants to come inside he’s like man I got to get past these hands
once he does that and to try to pressure as he watches he a little shake and bake
here left right and then he’s out okay so he will not allow himself to stay against the fence he uses this as a
rangefinder kind of where he needs to be here we go again we’re back at full extension and I use Cannon here because
Cannon here is a power puncher he comes forward similar to Strickland they had a very close fight was a split decision
and I think that Cannon near is a good example but here you see Izzy I mean grabbing the wrist I’m at full extension
Canon here can’t even do anything here so Izzy does this to keep that range and kind of get a reaction out of his
opponents and we’re going to piggyback off that and see this so here we are in that same position we’ve got both wrists
we’re holding it well Camden ear is going all right I’m not staying here I know what happens when I stay at the end
I can’t even do anything so I need to fold in I need to crash and I need to break this pressure so we see Canon air he starts to come
inside and as he gets close look at Israel he’s always thinking and here we go
he is so sneaky I mean you want to crash in on my range
you want to come in cool I’m just going to fold and hit you with an elbow so this is a little trick that he does if
you stay all the way at the end I’m gonna kick you come into a broken elbow I hit you crash all the way in I can
elbow so we see Izzy all these different points and here we go with Alex we
definitely wanted to include this last fight see the adjustments kind of that were made what it is he do different
what did he learn and we learned a lot from this even though it was only two rounds we’re gonna break down Izzy just
let’s first look at his foot position let’s look at the discipline that he maintains we always want to be outside
in the foot battle so that way we can have that angle we can line up our power
shots and we are further away from the power shot of our opponent so we always
want to drift off that angle and let’s watch Izzy again he’s on that same metric that we talked about with the Ben
elbow and we’re just gonna kind of get a camera seven here so we can give our viewers a look here comes the punch on
the bent elbow bam doesn’t really hit Pereira prayer kind of gets out of the way right
so we say all right is is he really going to use this Rangefinder I mean is it really that perfect well there’s that
full extension now he’s got that leg fully extended again just barely what just barely outside of that foot
position so he’s got a full extension on his hand and we’re going to see him he’s going to kind of make some adjustments and prayer knows there prayer is like
get off me but look at is he he’s gonna back up just a little bit he’s going to extend that hand again right so here’s
that extension on that hand and I want you to watch this he extends that hand he’s got his position Pereira knows that
as well and we’re going to see Izzy right from that extension he’s gonna fire that leg kick and look at where
that lead kick lands exactly where he had his hand he knows that range perfectly and not only that but when we
start looking at this action from Pereira he dropped his hands he thought
it was a body kick right he brought his hands down and he got that reaction so
Izzy makes that read okay you dropped your hands I’m at kick range I’ve got that reaction there we go again he backs
up even more gets that arm all the way out and takes another step back which make you guess what kick yeah and a head
kick probably because he needs more space so watch what Pereira does here
Izzy’s gonna bring this knee up and when he does pereira’s reaction was to bring
the leg up because he thought it was a leg kick but in all actuality it’s a question mark to the top so it doesn’t
really land but it shows you Izzy’s range management and let’s show it again
look at the position that whole time while he was doing that measurement he still maintained that outside foot
position no matter what so he’s doing all these little games but his fundamentals are very well rooted he
understands exactly where he needs to be because he’s such an elite level Striker you make that mistake against this guy we’ve seen what happens so again let’s
do it in slow motion when he brings that leg up we’re going to see Pereira with the reaction of the check right he’s got
his hands up but he thought it was going to be a leg kick and so even though this kick doesn’t really do a whole lot it
just gives prayer something to think about but we’re not done yet if you stay in front of him all the way in front at
the end of his range that’s when the front kicks come in and when you look at the length here from Israel I mean that
is a far kick right so I’m always touching you I’m always seeing where you’re at if you come in close I punch
if you’re full extension I can kick and this is Izzy’s masterful range control and this is really really big because
this is really important this one two is something we’re going to kind of come back to and we know how big this one two
ends up being but I just want to show you Israel’s skill here here we see Izzy
completely Landing a strike right he’s got full extension he’s right on pereira’s chin but we see Pereira he
throws the left hook and it just barely misses so this is the perfect range that Izzy wants where he can land and his
opponent is missing and this is a perfect example of him being so on point with the range management here and these
are the adjustments that we saw him make in this fight and now here comes that big right hand and he landed that a lot
beautiful stuff here by Israel adesanya he is so good at setonies traps with his
range and dictating the pace of where he wants the fight to take place and of course when he can dictate where he
wants the fight take place he can land the big shot as he did on Alex padeta and as Sean O’Malley did after we talked
about counter-striking ahead UFC 292 we did this could certainly be something that tells a story in this one yeah
you’re right and uh the reality is that everyone who fights Israel knows okay we
just got done talking at length about his range control how long he is how skill of a strike you is if I’m fighting
this guy and I’m 76 inch reach right I’m gonna try to get in close but the problem is when you come downhill on him
he’s ready and he sets those traps and sometimes they’re very deadly so let’s take a look at some of the
counter-striking from the champion and some of the moments that he’s executed here in the Octagon we’re just going to
watch him against Robert Whitaker I just want you guys to see the lateral motion
right here he’s just going to kind of shake and bake right here he’s kind of going left he’s kind of going right he
knows Whitaker likes to charge in with that jab and kind of come inside and Whitaker’s timing him Whitaker is very
good at darting in and out and Izzy knows that you can see Izzy’s face he’s locked in his hands are down he’s not
trying to land right at this moment he’s not even in a offensive set he’s kind of
like this right and this is not something that you see a lot fighting but the reason why we’ll show you
as Robert charges in little left little right look at Robert trying to get a
beat on him Izzy had that plan to throw that counter hook just to get out of the
way and when you stop and you look at it right here look at Robert he kind of had an idea I mean he lands and is he
doesn’t really land but if you see Izzy’s body right here Izzy’s gotten himself all the way to the side and
Whitaker is where where is he going he’s going past him so it was almost like a matador he kind of stepped to the side
with that little hook and the reason why this mattered so much was because of the next punch Whitaker
is now out of position and when you see Whitaker he’s kind of trying to look back over at him but look at his
position look at where his body is he’s kind of overextended looking backwards and Israel even though not in a perfect
spot this is what he wanted and here comes that big right hand knocks
Whitaker down and this is the end of the first round but we know what would happen in this fight and we know this isn’t a coincidence because he will land
this exact thing again to finish the fight so counters from Izzy if you’re not careful he will get you on that
counter this this is really something else and we broke this down Israel talked about
this as well knowing what he needed to do to win this fight knowing how he needed a blind Pereira and and kind of
some of pereira’s um mistakes that he makes defensively this is not the finishing sequence but
it shows you what was in the Champion’s mind when he did throw the finishing sequence here we have him covered up I
mean I wouldn’t want to stand in front of Alex prayer covered up I mean that takes commitment in itself right he’s covered up here he’s like all right I’m
gonna wait for him to throw he doesn’t quite wait but he kind of shows us his mindset here as Alex starts to come in
here comes the left hook Alex gets out of the way but we see Alex crash in and let’s look where this right
hand lands let’s get just a little bit more here it doesn’t really land what I want you to see where he was aiming he
was aiming for this area but as Alex crashed in he came back and crashed in
he kind of jammed up the distance so it doesn’t really land right but we see him covered up Let Me Wait hook overhand
right right to that spot then he throws another one doesn’t quite get there that’s the end of that series
shortly thereafter Brendan we have this sequence and kind of the
same thing right I mean he’s against the fence he’s covered up definitely not a place he wants to be we know what
happened here last time but let’s just kind of watch how calm he is under Fire here and this just shows you his faith
in his counters he covers he covers he covers there’s a big knee and right here
hands are up right let’s watch what Izzy does this is the same position first is going to come
the left hook just says kind of a little Blinder to get his chin up and we see
it’s not like it’s a big punch it’s just kind of a Blinder right but he’s already loading that thing he
already knows exactly what he wants to do and he showed us that earlier here comes a shot this time the reason why
this lands is because the posture of Alex stays up and down last time we saw Alex
crash in this time Alex’s chin just from that little shot is up and his head is
up and he stayed back so this shot the Arc of this shot is going to land
exactly where he wants it to land because of Alex’s reaction here comes the big right hand similar to what he
did last time and I mean he just lands it flush after he lands that big punch we saw it hurts Alex bad and we know he
likes to go hook cross again hook cross again and we’re going to take a look at this
the way that he lands these shots this was not an accident this was not luck this is something that their team
studied and Israel knew that’s what he needed to do he knew that’s where he needed to be for that shot
and then this epic celebration obviously a big moment for him um beating Alex who deserves a ton of
credit Alex Alex got his numbers on him too so yeah he’s once a lot heavy weight but we got to give him his respect I
mean he’s given Izzy his hardest challenge by far so we see is he here again he’s covered
up we just want to look at this and see what he’s thinking and kind of what he’s doing here’s that left hand
now here’s the big right hand over the top again now let’s watch this left hand again and this is this is some style
Bender stuff right here watch what he does when he puts the left hand again he’s not really trying to land it
Brandon he’s just trying to Blind him look at this this is like style Bender business right
here he just kind of gave him the this is not a punch right I mean this ain’t a
punch his hand is even kind of open right so he just puts it in front of him and when you see Alex what’s Alex
looking at just catches his eye line right it’s just enough to get his vision going in
the slowest reaction and that’s exactly what Izzy wants to do here comes Izzy now over the top and you can see Alex he
tried to get out of the way but it was that second shot that really turned off the lights and you can see when you
watch Alex as he’s going down I mean the lights are already off and this little left hook boom just to
finish it and uh and then one follow-up but Alex is done and I think it came from the big right hand so be careful
what you wish for coming in against the champ right he might cover up he might shake and bake but he’s gonna throw
those counters and they’re very effective back to the Challenger and Sean Strickland if you think that he wants to close the distance which would
be his path to making it a fight Victory you think he might have to do some work in the clinch yeah I mean we just got
done talking again on and on about range control counter-striking but Sean Strickland’s got a really good clinch
right because he’s a forward pressure fighter and he comes forward a lot he ends up here all the time and he’s
really good at it offensively but he’s also got some good defensive tactics that he uses as well so here he’s
against Uriah Hall uh you know I know you’re right hall very well obviously he’s a very Dynamic Striker and he’s got
a 79.5 inch reach that’s why I included this so it kind of shows you the tactics that Sean used in this fight he was very
successful um this was a smaller octagon so we have to take that under consideration because
they will be fighting in the 30-foot octagon which is about 30 percent bigger but I still think that Sean’s going to
try to find these positions so you can see here he’s got his hand on the bicep
Uriah has a small underhook here and we’ve got this Frame okay but I want you
to watch at what Sean does here he’s pretty slick so he’s going to get his
head in a great position right here we see him change the head position to come underneath and this is so important
because the head is a control point it’s like an arm we want to use it to control our opponents and put him against the
cage get their posture straight up and down so that way they can’t move get their hips straight up and down get
their legs straight up and down so that way we can wrestle we can strike so we see Sean he’s got the good head position and again he’s kind of moved that just a
little bit lower right and we see the underhook here this I mean it was here now it’s here now
it’s here he’s trying to kill that underhook and he’s absolutely going to kill that underhook watch what
Strickland does here he keeps that head position he understands the clinch very well we’re gonna see him right here
now he’s pushing he’s extending Uriah back right and we
notice what happened to the underhook it’s gone he pushed Uriah back with that cuff control on that bicep and killed
that underhook getting him further and further against the fence right look at his shoulder so in doing that he sets
himself up perfectly for what he wants right and we see that now we see that full extension and here comes the big
elbow right over the top so very slick stuff by him with a little push pull setting that up there goes the
elbow now he’s going to come with another little attack and uriah’s stuck here Against the Cage trying to figure out
what he’s doing but look at that lead elbow in which I thought was pretty slick and now
he’s going to come with even more he’s going to come inside one more right elbow and then right back to what right
back to the head position so he can score here in the clinch as well as control Izzy is very very good here but
just just shows you Sean’s ability to score and put together offense with elbows and punches and I put this in
here because Jared can near is a beast this guy fought it heavyweight while Sean fought at welterweight he fought at
light heavyweight he’s like a 220 pound just Brick House of a guy I mean he is
very strong very powerful his last performance was incredible I thought I
can’t say enough good stuff about canner yeah he lost to Izzy but he’s definitely up there and this really surprised me
when I broke it down because I don’t think of Sean the former welterweight as being Mr strong but he does some really
good stuff here so we just want to watch first of all this is all about hand fighting and risk control so he’s trying
to hand fight and risk control here on Cannon here he’s got him against the fence let me land a little shot on you
that was actually a pretty good little punch and look at how he’s got his body just laying there right he’s putting all
his weight in he’s off on the toes driving his way into cannoneer on the
fence really good body positioning here from Strickland and we go all right well
okay you’re leaning on what else are you gonna do but holding cannoneer for any amount of time is impressive but here’s
when I really started to dissect what was going on so here we see Strickland
he’s kind of got his hands together a little bit and Cannon ears on trying to hand fight trying to peel you want to
peel you want to turn in you want to get the hands off you want to get back in the middle and Strickland obviously
knows that so when I was watching this I was like this isn’t going to last very long like Kenny’s just gonna but that’s not what happens Strickland
is really really sneaky right here so once cannonier tries to start hand fighting in here and start prying that
away we’re going to see Strickland right here he just gets what we call a tight waist
basically he’s just got his hand wrapped around the belly of Cannon near he’s just kind of squeezing in with his elbow
and again when I saw this in real time when I was watching it I was like all right can’t air is just going to turn
away no that’s not what happens so as canonier tries to turn in we see
Strickland riding that tight waist and he’s going to turn with canineer here and the way he positioned his body was
so smart then I start looking what does he do in that scramble he grabbed
canoneer’s wrist so he had the tight waist and as Canon here is trying to get away he grabbed
his wrist now he’s pulling his wrist right and controlling him with the wrist
and wrist control is everything in MMA now we’re going to see Strickland he’s got that wrist and then he goes throws a
punch with the other hand so we know his hands aren’t connected and we’re going to see him as he turns around here he’s still holding on a can near his wrist
there’s another punch there we go now there’s that risk control that we’re
talking about right hands aren’t connected but he knows that Canon air is going to hand fight
so once cannoneer goes to hand fight to break the wrist we’re going to see what Strickland does again
Here Comes Ken here with a hand fight there we go again can here gets the hand off but what’s underneath this is
Strickland back on that tight waist so once Cannon here breaks the wrist control Strickland just goes back to the
tight waist and then when he goes to the tightways he goes back to the wrist so and again the body positioning here and
the way he’s putting all his weight into him his head position this is really good stuff here and I look for him to do
this yeah I mean it’s okay it’s not sexy it seems kind of boring but this is the stuff that really wears you out guys got
your wrist he won’t get off of you you’re trying to peel out and he keeps this up uh for quite some time against
Canon ear which really kind of shows he might be stronger than we think because
I just did not see this coming so he holds this position I look for this to
happen in this fight I look for him to try to do it but I’m sure Israel and his team are going to be very well versed
and ready for this but this was impressive to me and you can to see it’s kind of got some ride time there not a ton of damage but he is wearing Cannon
here out right here and that was a very close fight ended up being a split decision and now seeing how good Canon
ear is fighting it kind of shows you where Strickland’s at because that fight you know those are the moments in a
fight that kind of change the energy in the gas tank and can Strickland do that and get a take down there and change
change things up as you mentioned he’s a former welterweight so he’s not known as this strength and conditioning All-Star
he’s known as the guy that just knows how to fight because he puts himself in those situations gotta thank God assign he’s going to be ready for the clinch as
he usually is because most people don’t want him to play at range at his best no and I mean adesanya has spent his whole
career having people try to take him down right people have been trying to grab him and hold him so he’s developed a very good takedown defense game
especially Against the Cage but he’s also been working his offense Purple belt under Andre galval he’s got some
wrestling going on and we we see the work and I do think when he went to 205 he did get physically stronger right and
I think that’s something that’s important to talk about um you know we’ll see what the strength matchup is and we start here with Canon
ear to piggyback off of what we just did so this just shows you Izzy’s understanding of the fundamentals
um he’s got the overhook right here he does not have an underhook yet Cannon near is trying to hit
Canada’s got the good head position which we look for Strickland to do the same thing but as adesanya gets this underhook and
we’re going to see the underhook right here once he gets the underhook on this side
he starts to let go of the wizard on this side and the reason why he does
this is he’s going to use that underhook to turn and watch him grab the head
so this right here basically you grab your opponent’s head and you turn out
now he’s got the underhook too to assist so the minute he got the underhook he
lets go of the overhook it just shows you how quickly he’s working through these problems and yeah it seems simple
okay a quick turn against the cage but it’s a Canon here he’s like man I worked so hard to get him here like I got head
position I’ve got him here and then Ben he’s out of there so uh a simple thing but an important detail
now he’s reset the middle right and now Canon ears got us back against the cage and just like that the heart rate
accelerates the cardio starts to wane the energy bar starts to go down and these are the little moments that break
guys in these five round fights so now Canada is like all right I’ma hold on to
you this time and we see him he’s working and we see Izzy on the single leg defense he’s got his
leg against cannir’s leg and this is counter pressure basically right you’re balancing yourself off of your opponent
okay and this is the correct defense for a single leg even if somebody grabs it
and we’re going to see Canon here he understands what’s going on here he’s throwing this busy work but really
does he want the takedown we’ll see and here we go now we’re hugging the leg and we’re trying to take a big step
backwards and the reason why Canada wants to take a big step this way is he wants to get that momentum and take Izzy
what this way by keeping his leg right he wants to Pivot and swivel and make Izzy fall down and not a bad attempt but
we can see Izzy’s already got the leg down right and that’s not a good sign for Cannon here you want the leg close
and in tight to your body you also want your head to be contacted on the other athlete we
see he’s already lost contact and watch Izzy’s athleticism here let’s watch Izzy’s leg and I just want to highlight
this let’s keep an eye on this leg and see what he does he’s gonna pull this leg out we call
this limp leg he’s going to limp leg this straight out so now the leg is gone all
right so he’s already got the leg out but watch what he does with his hand
here and he’s kind of off balance you know he’s in a bad spot because one leg was off the ground as canonier tries to come inside let’s
watch Izzy how he uses that frame on that left arm he is so slick he’s going
to use this elbow as he pulls his leg back down to get the balance and he’s gonna kind of pry cananeer up and change
in momentum as he’s turning back inside right and watch him keep his balance
here so he kind of gets Canon here going the other way little bounce off the fence and now watch now he exits right
away gets back to the middle so just really really slick stuff very very athletic and very well done with his
length and again now you’ve reset the middle and you’re in front and now you got to deal with me on the stand up so I
wasted all this energy and I didn’t get anything out of it curious against Alex and this is the spot he does not want to
be in right lesson learned okay and I mean he’s faced this guy many times it’s
super scary he’s got that left hand working I mean Izzy’s like all right I don’t want to stay here
and this is something very similar to Strickland let’s watch what Izzy does I’m in trouble he Ducks under the left
hook he’s going to connect his hands here and what we call a Gable grip so this is a
powerful grip and what you do is you go thumb over thumb right here this is strong so he’s got an over under because
we can see there’s an underhook here for Pereira but he uses that over under very well and we’re going to see him turn
Pereira around here and we know prayer is a light heavyweight prayer is a big dude and we know his grappling Is Not
Great yet but he I mean he got up against yawn he’s not a slouch right he didn’t get finished there so we see Izzy
when he’s in trouble against the fence he will duck down and come in and get those underhooks similar to Strickland
so now he’s reversed his position and we see again we talk about the head
being an arm right we need that head position so we see the head position right here
and we talked about what being inside that bicep there he is inside that bicep
and he’s got a little underhook right here and he’s working position here he’s got Pereira against the fence
in a good spot he’s working his head position he’s working his grips now he comes up high with the underhook
we see this high underhook this knee really doesn’t land and we see the head position let’s watch what Izzy does here
he’s going to go to a tie clinch right here he connects his hands
again this is more of like a butterfly grip and I mean this is just real kickboxing right he’s got that position
Kenny land niece here Pereira obviously knows this position very very well these
two guys know each other so well couple body shots here let’s watch what Izzy does he’s gonna get that head down and
you can see him making sure that his head is lower than pereira’s head head
position is everything against the fence remember that if your head is over my head I’m in a bad spot I need to be
under you I need to be lower than you if I want to take you down my hips need to be lower than yours if I want to strike
my head has to be underneath so I can break off and frame you up so small
detail but an important one he frames him up and why does he frame him up because he’s setting him up
here he comes there’s that push off and watch what he does with his arm
there we go again the frames that we see from the champ he’s very good at that he uses that
frame to kind of get Alex up and once he gets him up here comes the big elbow
over the top a lot of growth here from Izzy when I saw that wrist control I knew he was working really really hard and he’s balanced so to act like he’s
not going to be able to handle the ground I just don’t know if that’s true we have not seen him fail at middleweight on the ground we have it
light heavyweight I get it yawn definitely controlled him but can Sean Strickland do it I don’t know
well that’s our next question because as you can see grappling of Sean Strickland and Strickland will outwardly say I
should probably grapple but I don’t want to yeah and that’s what the fans don’t want to see yeah but he does have some
grappling if he needs it and if the fight Finds Its way he absolutely does have grappling and I mean he’s a black
belt and you know he’s got the skill set we’ve seen him do it against some Dynamic Strikers but you know to use his
own words he wants to do the man dance and I really think that’s just who he is you know I think he likes to stand and bang so
I don’t know if we’ll see it or not it definitely would make sense but let’s just take a look at it and and see if it
does come into play here so here he’s against Uriah Hall and it’s kind of similar to Izzy like I don’t really
think he was really planning a takedown here you know he throws his one two it
comes off Uriah kind of ducks on her they kind of collide right here and we’ve talked about Sean’s ability to
kind of get to this underhook position but when he got here this time he kind of kind of started looking behind him
and he hits this outside trip so well I mean he goes for it right away you’re
going to see him take a big step and I mean he’s got Uriah going backwards I
mean almost instantly and this isn’t the easiest takedown but he hits it perfectly and he doesn’t wait so
um it just shows you he does have a lot of experience and once he hits this takedown he explodes in his shots he
puts a lot of damage on Uriah here and Uriah gets up relatively fast but Strickland he’s got the legs pinned he’s
underneath you can see the ankles and then he’s right back on top to the wrist so I was impressed with how much damage he
caused in such a short time and here we see him in half guard and again we see him framing the elbow we see him just
being that guy you know being mean and we saw this the reason I put it in here is we saw Izzy in this position against
John but that’s yawn but we saw the yawn and Alex fight you know MMA math doesn’t
always work so um we don’t know we don’t know if Strickland can do this but
we’re gonna see Uriah here he’s gonna scramble and this is really what I wanted to put in
here we go again seems to be a theme right when he goes to his base I’m not worried about hooks I’m not worried
about any of that what do I want I want that wrist so he cannot post his hand up if he can’t push up he can’t get up and
I mean Sean hit that quick so he’s got that wrist and he’s going to go right
from there now he’s going to kind of get on top he stays on that other wrist we saw him on the other wrist there
and right when he lets go that now he’s gonna go hooks because he understands but watch away sags his weight down too
like this is really good work by Strickland here and Uriah turns over and
now he’s got back control and uh this is good we’ve got a big mistake right here ankles crossed we never want
to cross our ankles but Uriah is so far on him and so far out of it he does it for just a second and gets away with it
and understands not to do it because watch what he does right here he’s going to use that foot the left hook
it’s going to come right about here as your right tries to turn in there it is so we see Sean just understanding these
positions right and and you know he’s attacking here and he’s very comfortable it’s not like he wrestles and gets tired
or gasses out he kind of just goes with the flow but if he can get this back control on Israel to Sanya for a couple
rounds I mean who knows and here’s Brennan Allen getting ready to throw a body kick to Sean and the reason I put
this in here is we know Izzy likes to throw that left body kick as well and seanan lands a nice right hand right
here so in doing that he does open himself up looks like a big Target zone
right here so Brandon goes all right you hit me but here comes the body kick but let’s watch Strickland let’s watch what
he does with his right hand and how fast he does this so as as Brennan goes to
unload this kick right watch his hand
right from the punch to the grab so he goes I’m full contact I come right back
and grab now he’s going to trap Alan’s heel here and this is what you want so
now he’s trapped his heel so he can’t pull his leg out right you kind of shore up on that the next step and this is a
Muay Thai sweep the next step is to take this hand and literally run your guy
down right just push on him because he’s on one leg get him to bounce and get him to fall and the way that he does this
and how fast he executes this off of a punch there’s that push push push sometimes you got to kick the guy’s leg
out there it is and now he’s on top in a dominant position so the way that he did this was really impressive to me that he
could go right from striking into catching into sweeping okay now he’s on top so can you catch Izzy’s
kicks the only thing is I don’t want to be scooping down here we saw with Alex
trying to play The Guessing Game you guessed wrong what he’s going to question mark it and bring it to your face so definitely look for this battle
to happen because if he can’t take him down from wrestling he might try to take him down off the kicks and here we go
finally just watching him with that tight waist and right here just
being busy right he’s got the leg in he’s got nice control I look for him to
try to do this he might not be able to take down is he Izzy is not easy to take down but can he get these positions and
frustrate Izzy and how is he make a mistake we’ll see but I do feel like we will see some of these scenarios in
there I think Strickland will mix and match I don’t know if he’ll do it on purpose we’ve got to look at who he is
he stands in bangs man he does what he says he’s going to do so we’ll see well
stand and bang is uh certainly his Hallmark as we go to x factors yeah and
we’ve seen some big upset underdogs come through and get a title belt in 2023
could Sean Strickland be one of them if he were to What’s The X Factor this guy’s gritty man he knows who he is you
know and I mean he’s got some controversy that and some of the stuff he says and the sparring videos and all
that but I think he’s just molding himself into that guy right he’s super durable he’s very tough he’s on only
been finished one time at middleweight and that was from Alex and Alex is now like heavyweight and there is no shame
in getting finished from Alex Izzy got finished from Alex so and and Alex is gone so he’s got one time he was
finished as a welterweight too a long time ago so very durable guy we’ve seen him take shots I mean we’ve seen him get
hit he just keeps on coming and it’s that forward pressure and they’re like all right man let’s fight like I’m gonna
break you like you can hit me I’m tougher than you and we see that in his grit and durability and let’s just take
a look at some of the moments here that I’m talking about I mean I don’t really need to say a whole lot I mean look at
this missile that’s coming right at his face and I mean the other thing is
cannoneer is low here Cannon here is sitting down on his shot this has got
full extension full Arc this is the good night shot right here I mean this does not look like a good scenario so when I
saw this coming I was like man I want to see how this turns out and let’s watch the punch oh my God not only does it
land but what makes you get knocked out is the snap right how much does my head move look at Strickland’s traps here
look at the flexion I mean he just got hit with such a hard shot and look at where Cannon near’s level is I mean he
sat all the way down as we said heavyweight big puncher watch what Strickland does here I was like man he’s
gonna blink he’s gonna he’s gonna back up he doesn’t do any of that this dude fires right away fires a shot and he
just doesn’t even seem phased and when I saw that I was like man he he just has a chin look guys if he gets knocked out I
don’t want to hear about it right the reality is everybody can get knocked out but he has a chin I mean he can take
shots and not only that but he comes right back he’s right back in the fight sometimes guys get hit and they kind of
start breaking a little right they get hit and they they kind of start showing up they’re there but they’re in Survival Mode that ain’t survival mode right I
mean he’s right back in the fight and he would finish his fight it was a split decision so here he is he took this fight on
short notice and he he bet on himself and we’re going to see this eye pokes pretty nasty right here we’re gonna see
a full extension of the eye of the fingers into the eye right here he had some adversity in this fight
right and he was kind of getting touched up early and and kind of getting hit and it really wasn’t going well I was like
man is this gamble gonna pay off for shreklin well it’s going to end up paying off and we see here he’s eating
the kicks he’s dealing with it he’s dealing with all the offense but this is what happens where is this guy at
against the fence where Strickland comes straight downhill right and the guy’s a
bull that’s what he does he comes downhill and he’s ready
um and then he starts putting those numbers on in that volume and he just kind of breaks guys this is exactly what we’ve seen him do over and over again
against really high level guys we see the speed too it is there I think he’s
at a disadvantage against Israel but I mean he can really start putting it together and I had to put this clip in
here the Jack marshman clip it’s just him talking right like come on man let’s go like let’s throw down and and this is
his mindset this is who he is there’s no faking Sean Strickland again we see he’s
got that Philly shell going on he doesn’t always do it but he keeps that hand here and this here and this gets
kind of wild right here it’s not the prettiest thing but it’s who he is you know and he just throws down in the
middle and he has won this fight this fight was in the bag this is a little bit crazy you know you might get knocked
out here you might get touched but this just shows you the confidence that he has in his chin and who he is and what
he believes in she’s the guy that likes to fight and fans like to see that you
know and um he’s not always going to finish but he is always going to give it his best so Sean Strickland incredible
durability and grit in the Octagon well he was taking fights uh when he was 16 years old and that’s before it was cool
to take fights at 16 years old right a generation ago for Israel out of Sonya he is so technically good that one would
think he doesn’t really need an X Factor but what is The X Factor for Israel should he need to go into deep Waters a
bit so many different talents right the kicks the elbows the knees The Knockout
thoughts but what I really think it is it’s the detail work the faints in the fates the footwork how he sets people up
and how he utilizes all these little movements we always say the devil’s in the details that’s what we say in the
room all the time we’re going to see the details here um incredible here with our blood-stained octagon
so we talked about if I’m all the way long you can’t hit me so but he is
pretty heavy on this leg right here and cantoners got good leg kicks and this
was about you know it’s a 50 50 position and we know that Canon air is a forward
pressure fighter as well but watch what Izzy does now he’s gotten closer and you
can see this leg is right here Canon ear thinking about it he can take this leg out he can attack watch what Izzy does
it’s just a simple little move he’s got his range he’s got his range now I’m
going to completely change things so he will show you something let you
come in and then what and now where are you at I mean he’s all the way out with his full armor you
don’t want to be here you don’t want to fight Izzy right here you do not want to be here and look at that so Canon ears
kind of caught flat-footed he’s completely changed a picture and he does this just with the smallest little
tweaks with his footwork and his faints and understanding so now Cannon here is like all right like okay well okay he’s
against the fence watch Izzy I’m gonna go right now he’s created this angle over here
and he doesn’t know Canon here doesn’t know is he going to go this way is he out of there right and you can see Canon
here he’s kind of trying to look back thank you so now I’m a little shake and bake maybe
I’m going to go left oh now I’m right in the middle right which is risky Izzy
doesn’t stay in the middle very long now watch him Escape out so Cannon here chases them right resets the middle
beautiful but let’s stop it right here same thing we saw with Alex earlier where is he gonna go he is so
good at now he’s reset the middle but now he’s going to use it to attack he doesn’t just use it to get away he uses
it to change the way that round is going now I reset the middle Cannon here is trying to walk in and kind of get
squared back up you’re going to see there’s that step again there’s that big step that way to take
another big step this way right we see this lateral movement out of these guys it’s really really fast but when they do
it they’re setting the footwork and they’re setting the trap for the next move there’s the Step Up
with the foot and we’re gonna see here it comes now here comes the body kick so in him taking those steps he sets
himself up right and he cuts off the Octagon before canineer can turn around and relocate
him he’s already a step ahead and he’s already scored off of that so he changes the negative into a positive beautiful
small details here then he adds on there beautiful work now here we go with a big miss here from
Pereira and we see again the beautiful angle work we see him drifting off and now Pereira
is kind of turning to look at him and watch it what he does here as Pereira
turns that’s why the footwork’s so important because when you’re a step ahead you can land when Pereira turns he
is squared you never want to fight like this what can I do here I can’t move I can’t pivot I can’t
rotate this is an in-between Zone and I don’t want to be here Israel sees that and he takes advantage of it he loads
that left hand and he lands it right he hits Pereira in the transition
so pereira’s flat-footed he hits him in the transition he gets a good shot on
him what’s prayer going to do we’re going to watch Pereira he’s going to step back and he’s going to kind of trying to lean back but as he does that
look at what Izzy does he steps through to cut that distance and by doing that
he puts himself in perfect position to land that big punch there’s that Blinder there’s that big shot again
so he cuts the distance and then he steps through the distance to add on
super detailed stuff beautiful score against Alex who’s one of the most decorated Strikers as well that we’ve
seen in the octagon and here we go we see him Southpaw position we see Alex he’s like all right
I need to get out of here I know that body kick the left hand which we just showed he’s laying all that Alex is like
all right cool man I know what I need to do I need to Circle away from the power he starts to shift watch what Izzy does
he steps up right in the middle and changes the picture he changes everything and now he’s Orthodox and
we’re gonna see what he does with that so before Alex has a chance to slide out
of the way I’m here you step that way and I go this way now I’m right in front
of you and what is he going to do with that when Alex Goes to throw the kick he’s already a step ahead of him there’s
the jab so by switching his feet and cutting the distance he changed that whole picture he’s going to catch Alex
flush knocks him off balance he’s going to come with another two now he doesn’t land the two because Alex gets out the
way but let’s watch this this this guy’s really something
again we showed it earlier outside foot position right and we knew why Alex
circled away in the beginning he circled away to get away from the left kick right well I don’t know if Izzy does
this stuff on purpose but there it is he lands left kick so he reset everything by stepping through
gave Alex something else to think about step through again and then lands the same body kick that he was looking for
earlier so really incredible stuff here with his footwork and then finally this
explains itself he just goes Matrix mode here Marvin is a forward pressure guy comes forward heavy-handed I had to put
that little detail in there if Strickland gets him against the fence which we know he likes to and bomb on them look for Izzy to do a little bit of
Matrix work incredible stuff out of both of them it’s really going to be a battle of details
a thorough analysis of the X’s and O’s of both of those those guys now we go into our keys of Victory we’ll start
with Israel adasanya should he keep the belt what does he need to do well the number one thing he needs to do
and I think our viewers know this is stay off the fence right the only time he’s ever lost in his career was against
the cage and he’s so versatile he has incredible range management motion his legs his kicks his experience what in
the middle of the Octagon I mean he’s kind of a nightmare to deal with right I mean I’m gonna kick you I’m gonna punch you I mean you just don’t know what’s
going on so Izzy has to stay off the fence and to do that he needs to maintain his range we showed how
incredible he is at range management we know he has the length we know he has the length in the legs when we did the
breakdown for Alex and Izzy we saw Sean react to Alex’s little thing get his
hands out and that was what ended him with the hook so Izzy’s going to study that his team’s going to study that can
they get Sean to react and get his hands away and land that knockout shot he’s only got to make him wrong one time
lastly I think he needs to be first I think that Izzy has a speed advantage and I think he will look to be first too
and also try to bully Sean a little bit if Sean gets that momentum going he can land that shot he’s got that volume and
he’s very good at what he does so I look for Izzy to be first and last and try to stifle Sean Strickland’s Rhythm on the
other side Strickland experienced he’s had his best career form since returning in 2020 as a middleweight after being on
the welterweight roster for a while 100 this guy knows who he is you know like it or not he knows who he is and he’s
got to close the distance I mean he’s a forward pressure fighter he comes forward anyway he’s always closing the
distance naturally I look for this to happen I look for him to be who he is he’s just got to be careful not to run
into those counters I mean we know Izzy sets traps and Sean’s got to be careful to make sure that he doesn’t follow one
of them but I’d look for him to be who he is and also he’s got to win the clinch battle right if they’re gonna get
close they’re going to be in these positions to fight for those under hosts kind of I showed you with Ken in here the wrist control and because Izzy so
long those limbs are out there look for Strickland to trap those wrists look for him to give him a hard time try to wear
down his gas tank and get them oh it’s just a little bit tired take some steam off his shots I’m sure Strickland has
been training like crazy right I mean he knows this is his one shot he’s a big Underdog but he’s going to give it everything he’s got and I look for him
to mix and match lastly will we see him utilize his grappling we know he has it
you know we showed it that’s why we put it in here will he not do the man dance and will he grapple I think I think he
is who he is I think he’s gonna stand but I think he will definitely mix and match and if it’s opportunistic I do
look for him to go for it um but that’s not to say that his team shouldn’t go for it anyway and shouldn’t
kind of game plan for it over five rounds so it’s really going to be interesting to see if if Strickland
breaks the mold and kind of goes to some of the wrestling Israel adesanya is that MMA superstar that became a champion and
a lot of people thought that was an eventuality Sean Strickland has a crazy story in 2018 he was in a motorcycle
accident thought he may never fight again he returns as a middleweight and here he is in a title fight against
Israel son is the UFC returns to Sydney and for ottasania perhaps his biggest career moment came earlier this year in
2023 when he knocked out Alex pereda at UFC 287 begs the question what does he
have for the Encore safe side you’re the man masterfully done as always and we
hope you out there enjoy UFC 293 down under thanks for watching UFC breakdown
