Brendan Fitzgerald and Sayif Saud preview the UFC 297 main event between reigning Middleweight Champ Sean Strickland and …
[Music] one of the biggest stories in the Octagon in 2023 was Shan Strickland’s unlikely rise to a UFC Championship he starts the new year by looking to defend his belt against the very dangerous and difficult drus dupi here for the preview on UFC breakdown is safe saoud from foris MMA happy New Year what a year we had in 2023 on this show and we’re ready to hit the ground running in 24 with a great matchup at UFC 297 for the middleweight title you nailed it Brennon what a huge Story the newly minted middleweight champion Sean Strickland with that Philly shell defense walking guys down using that nice jab and that front kick really cutting off the Octagon putting that amazing pressure that we saw him in all these main events this guy’s a main event fighter he’s really coming to his own also a BJJ black belt he’s very well-rounded he takes on his first first Contender dricus dupi who’s a former Muay Thai Champion a very unorthodox Striker but he finds ways to connect with those power shots he’s really really good in the clinch very physical top game very accurate violent ground and pound he’s a formidable opponent does some really good game planning as we saw in the Robert Whitaker fight these are two very unique guys right but they’re very effective a little bit different A little unorthodox it’s really going to come down to execution Brendon to see who comes out on top in Toronto well dup made a lot of doubters Believers when he not only beat but finished Robert Whitaker as a big Underdog last summer he’s undefeated in the octagon and he has done so impressively but we’ll start with the champion as we go into fight focus and you mention that Philly shell that very unique style in mixed martial arts of one Sean Strickland but it’s been effective all the way to a belts absolutely there’s the belt on his shoulder I mean we can’t start with a better intro than him versus Israel one of the best maybe middleweights ever okay so let’s break this down let’s not get ahead of ourselves here this was an incredible matchup because we know about Israel’s ability on the feet we know how complex he is we’ve been breaking him down for the last few years here and we’re going to talk about some of the things that he does so well and Shan Strickland was able to overcome them and actually even use them against them so let’s just play this right here so this is the very beginning of the fight this is the first round all right we talk about this all the time right me specifically is he so good at pawing that distance right once gets that distance and he knows where he’s at he strikes from there because he’s so long he’s so good with the range management let’s watch what Sean Strickland does and how he uses that against him so Izzy goes to try to grab Sean Strickland nope he is gonna grab Izzy’s wrist himself so we see the wrist grab right he’s gonna drive it this way when he drives the arm this way he’s gonna follow up with his own jab pushing Iz he back against the fence watch the follow-up shot the the right hand okay really slick stuff here from Sean Strickland using Izzy’s tools against him now let’s just watch right here we’re going to see this theme over and over again is he against against a cage he gets the high shell defense right and he kind of sits Strickland is just watching here in the first round making his reads and you’re gonna watch Strickland as he’s just watching watch him watch he’s just looking at Izzy kind of seeing what his reaction is he doesn’t throw any punches just keep watching and as he’s seeing what Izzy’s doing he’s looking at what is reactions are waiting he’s not teeing off he’s not doing anything he waits he sees I he throws the left hand he throws the left hand okay but let’s remember that because we’re going to go back to it so Sean Strickland using some tricks here against the champion and we’re gonna see I he again is gonna try to grab him right and use that feeler but Strickland is going to use that against him so when Izzy goes to try to grab there goes Strickland he’s going to grab again but not only with one hand let’s watch what he does with this hand he’s going to pull Izzy in and grab with both hands and pull him forward okay now as he’s lifting his leg up let’s go just a little bit more there it is he pulls him in while lifting up that front leg threatening the front kick look at the position right that he put Izzy in he backed him all the way up right he’s using the hand game and the front kick to do what Izzy does to everybody else which was just beyond impressive and this is the first round so now we see Izzy’s Reaction watch how slick Strickland is he’s going to release that grip and he’s going to connect okay so he’s constantly tricking Izzy kind of back him up against the cage and again you’re going to see the ending of this is that same position right that high shell so Strickland’s gamesmanship right in the beginning first round okay well here we go what you do is you build and you start getting reads right I do a little this I do a little that I get a reaction I’m always building to try to really hurt an opponent and take him out let’s watch this sequence here watch Sean Strickland’s left hand he’s gonna reach out here is he’s gonna reach back now he faints the front kick so we’ve got the reach with the wrist and we’ve got the front kick Izzy calculating okay I’ve seen this before you just hit me with it twice you’re not hitting with with again so Izzy’s gonna start backing up here try to slide out he throws a left kick strickling all right let me get out of the way and then watch this we see that front kick again Strickland out of the range Strickland is going to cut Izzy off Izzy’s going to try to Circle away here after this front kick and get away from the cage he knows what Strickland wants to do right so he’s just kind of trying to throw some things out there get away from me let me circle out but Strickland knows that look at how committed and focused he is right he gets him against the fence we see the Philly shell we’ve got this here for the left hand very normal and we know from when he studied Izzy the first two or three times he backed him up against the cage Izzy does this and then he fires the left hand look at Strickland’s hand position and this really speaks to his fight IQ he knows that Izzy likes to fire that lead hand here we go again Izzy covers up Strickland’s making his read he’s thinking okay I think the left hand’s coming he throws the hook and right as Iz he goes to throw the left hand hand he smokes that right hand down the middle crushes Izzy here we’re just going to let this play gets this tight waist on him you can just see him going to town here he set this right hand up the whole first round backing him up against the fence get him to do that high guard trying to peek out with that left hook he smoked that right Hound right down the middle and we’re going to see it again right as I he opens up boom so Strickland is very good at setting up his strikes backing guys up up against the fence setting him up for that big Power Shot and if he can land this on one of arguably the best middleweights ever and the best strikers ever he can land this on anybody so Sean Strickland the newly minted middleweight champion dangerous on the feet and also slick will set up his strikes really well after he landed that big shot and kind of sent Israel reeling a little bit his aggressive strikes kind of reminded me of what drias dupi has been known to do he really brings aggression and a Relentless striking Pace once he has its opponent’s her drus is is is a Muay Thai Champion but he’s unorthodox right it’s a little bit difference a little funky looks a little different but he uses that very well and he’s so good at switching his stances and creating his opportunities to land his power shot so let’s take a look at this again I mean guys I’ve got so much you know respect for Robert Whitaker I think he’s an incredible fighter one of the best middleweights and you know going into this fight I thought he was going to do a really good job here on the feet I’ve just got to give this guy tons of credit he really showed how high level his striking can be and also the game planning I think is very important so here we see Robert Whitaker he fires a kick and this is typical Muay Thai you kick me I’m gonna kick you and we see that big step that he takes and then he’s just gonna place that nice left kick he likes that left kick he will throw that left kick over and over again he’ll Throw It To The Head he’ll throw it to the legs right so look for that left kick to be used he backs Robert Whitaker up and we just see him you know firing that return cutting him off getting in front of him and as this fight started to progress we can kind of tell you know you know what maybe he’s going to be able to hang with Robert Whitaker on the feet and now we start getting to the gold so Robert Whitaker and we know this from breaking him down from the Izzy fights he loves to do that Sprint jab where he’ll level change down and he’ll kind of come in well dricus his team really studied that and you can see he’s watching him and watch the way he studies his body movement and his level change I’m just going to pull this in slow motion we’re going to see right when Robert Whitaker starts to go down low there it is he’s in that down low Sprint position dricus knows you’re coming straight at me so he fought most of this fight in this Southpaw position with his right hand as the lead and you can see he’s about to step on Robert Whitaker’s foot and right when he comes in he’s just going to hit him with that lead jab and this is going to land really really well this isn’t the shot that hurts him but we I think we both know it’s coming so he planned that that was not luck right we see it once here and we’re going to come back to it so he was reading Robert Whitaker’s level changes in that Sprint jab a lot of really good film study again Robert Whitaker fires the kick we just see the Muay Tha skill here right sweeping the leg Out dricus handling everything very well here this is a great performance so then he fires the kick back but I want you to watch how he explodes into this next part so Whitaker is trying to kind of get away from him but watch dricus he sees an opportunity watch him explode into this shot this lead hand boom right he will explode and Sprint into stuff he’s not a guy that throws in combination a lot but when he sees an opportunity he’s really good about it gets Robert Whitaker against the fence adds on a little bit we see him timing Robert Whitaker and sprinting in and exploding in and then finally this was really an amazing moment for him knocks Robert Whitaker down hurts him badly and we’re going to see him pursue here switches back to Orthodox and he’s in full Pursuit and really his finishing ability is something that we’ve got to talk about look at the location of these shots here I mean when he got Robert Whitaker hurt he finished him and that is not easy to do and when we see this replay we see again we see the level change from Robert Whitaker we see when he gets ready to Sprint drick is steps in and throws that jab and times it really well hurts him bad with a jab nonetheless L and we’re going to see the finishing look at this body shot look at the placement of the body shot and now let’s look at the placement of the follow-up shots watch this little short hook hits him in the ear now watch this hook right here I mean the location and his ability to locate in these moments right is excellent and he drops Robert Whitaker here it was really that right hand that really put him out didn’t give him a chance to recover if this guy hurts you which I look for him to try to hurt Sean Strickland early he’s definitely has a chance to put him out so knockout power 100% from dricus and really good game planning from his team and not just a power Striker at distance he’s shown in close quarters that he can get it done from the clinch will stick with the Challenger andrius dupi absolutely that Muay Thai background he’s really good at Landing those knees and controlling his opponents in close quarters so let’s take a look here we see him against Brad tarez and we see Brad tarz this fight was it was a close fight but we see him trying to back dricus up here look at the way dricus gets his hand from here around your Brad tarz you’ve got an underhook you’re like okay I’m driving you into the fence I’m not in a bad spot at all here you know yeah you got a hold of my head but you know I’m good watch the way dricus does this this is just a lot of skill and a lot of years of practice he’s going to change his hand position and bring it from the back to kind of the side and kind of create a frame then he’s G to use that frame to push we know he’s very strong to push tarz right into that knee right and he got his head from straight up to all the way to the side before he even hit the fence and you can see dricus now his body is pointing this way he didn’t let himself back straight up he created that angle and got that strike in before he allowed himself to get backed Against the Cage so really nice stuff here by dricus Landing in those Close Quarter situations and here we just see another big knee he’s really good at grabbing the head and pulling it down and Landing those big shots so Strickland’s going to have to be careful we know he lik likra pressure forward but when he gets close big man’s going to grab him so good stuff by dricus inside the clinch on the other side Sean Strickland you can’t fight in MMA for as long as he had and have the success that he has had without being well versed everywhere and uh you know he’s known for his striking and his boxing ability but in the clinch he can handle himself just as he can on the ground man you know as a coach we always talk about the basics and his ability with underhooks to utilize them to switch position hold guys against the fence or get out of trouble it’s really really good so just veteran stuff I mean you hit right on it so let’s take a look at Sean Strickland so here he is offensively he’s in an offensive series and he throws a big punch and he misses and these guys are kind of the clinch but I want you to watch how he digs these under hooks he’s got one right here you can see it and he’s working on the other one right but he’s really good at getting both underhooks and taking guys all the way to the fence right and he you know at middleweight we know he fought at welterweight but at middleweight he’s shown Incredible strength right and we’re going to show him against all the best guys here he’s really able to push guys Against the Cage this is going to be big because we don’t know who’s stronger right we can guess but we don’t know so here he is changing the positions getting the underhook so really good at just kind of controlling here very good with his head we see him using his head just being a dog getting that head position underneath to try to elevate his opponent all the right things and now here we go off the break we’re going to watch Strickland he likes to extend his arms out he’s very good at this he grabs the bicep and he creat cre space and right after he creates that space he’s going to land his shot so we’re going to see here goes Strickland he’s creating that space we see him kind of getting that arm as straight as he can again pay attention to it these are all the small things but this is how he creates that and creates these opportunities as he backs up he just looks him in the face and goes you know I think I want to punch you right in your face here’s the left hand and let’s get a little bit more because it’s going to be right on the chin okay so again just just these opportunities that he creates you know um and and and like you said that’s just the veteran Savvy that he has so good work off the clinch now here he is again and I put this in here because caner is just so physical right and dricus is very physical right they’re both big guys big strong guys and you don’t know dricus might really try to pressure Strickland and the at aan fight you know adna’s kind of backed up the whole time this is a look at if someone presses Shawn forward okay which I think dricus and his team are going to really try to do and we see Shawn here doing what he does he tries to flip that little front kick out there right kind of like hey get away from me give me some space Canon near just gets out of the way and one here comes one and Strickland’s got his head straight back and here comes two right Nails him with that cross but let’s watch how fast Strickland adapts he’s in a bad spot just got hit with a big right hand watch what he does here he gets against the fence he gets right into the body he’s going to connect his hands here right here you see him connecting the hands he doesn’t have double underhooks he only has one but you’re going to see him turn Canon ear which that can’t be easy that’s a big dude we know he fought at heavyweight again we see him working inside now again we see the double underhooks we see one and we see two so he’s so good at jacking those underhooks up and switching positions and getting guys against the fence and that’s so important because this clinch happens so many times in the Octagon whether you want it to or whether you don’t and it’s a good way for him to survive when he’s in trouble against the fence so really good work again defensively here in the clinch and here we see him against Uriah Hall and we we show again his slick ability to create space he’s got the bicep uriah’s holding here uriah’s got an underhook not a terrible position but watch how Strickland pushes away look at that left arm he’s going to extend that left arm all the way out he’s going to get Space he’s going to create it right he’s starting to push and once he gets enough space then he’s going to strike so we see the space he keeps pushing he’s gauging the distance right now not yet not yet not yet there it is right and that’s Clos quarters so he gets just enough space to land that strike and once he gets backed up now he starts adding on one and here comes the one two man he barely missed that two and that’s the two that put Izzy down now he goes back to the elbows and gets in close again nice job with his head position as well so Sean Strickland will break off he’ll elbow he’ll punch he’ll use it defensively these two on the clinch is going to be really interesting to watch and see who who can win these positions it’s going to be really important a lot of people expect this fight I would say to stay on the feet certainly drias dupi is known for power and aggression in the Striking department but we did show that takedown against Darren till so he has some grappling chops as well how do you expect him to maybe use it against Sean strippin this guy is so physical I mean you know he looks big here and you’ve seen him in real life he’s a big guy he’s a big strong guy he uses his physicality in a blend of Judo and wrestling to get these takedowns inside the Octagon he’s also very good on top violent ground and pound 10 submission wins he’s got a good squeeze as well so you know I think these guys are going to look at way back when Strickland was a welterweight maybe kamaro’s fight Strickland has not really gotten out wrestled terribly at middleweight I mean he’s lost decisions right he got ko’ed by Pereira but we haven’t seen anyone take him down and control him I think they’re going to try whether they succeed is is a different story but let’s take a look at at drias here so here he is this isn’t great positioning I mean the butts way out in the air he’s all the way down uh but he’s so strong he loads these legs and you’re going to see him he’s just gonna peel till basically off the fence right here I mean he I don’t even think he connects his hands here let’s look there’s no connection he’s just going to pull and peel that is not easy to do but what he does afterwards is the impressive part so now we see him he’s already got a hook he’s already got his position and he’s already working to hit right and I mean that happened quick he just took him down he already passes he’s already getting the hook and till is already starting to feel that power and we can see watch dricus he’s going to get a body triangle right here and this is just so impressive for such a big guy so he’s starting to starting to hit him but let’s watch him lock up the body triangle okay we see him working on it right here he’s working on he doesn’t quite have it locked you want that to be behind your knee all the way locked or you’re not stable so we’re going to see him lock that body triangle now it’s locked okay so this is really important guys always remember that right we’ve got to lock that now you see that other leg is even up in the air this guy is gonna balance himself okay he’s probably 210 pounds inside the Octagon maybe at least 200 205 he’s got the wrist control he has no base and he is going to pound Darren till from this position so the strength to be able to hold himself up like that with that body triangle and pound away very impressive physicality and he breaks him back down takes him back down here we go the same fight we’re going to see what happens so Darren till guessed wrong that time right he guessed wrong well what’s drick is gonna try to do get him to guess wrong again and he absolutely does we’re going to see dricus come in with a little level change and until thinks it’s a punch right so we see till stay standing and he throws his left hand right he plants he throws the left hand but dricus is in the different spot dricus is already on that taked down and we see dricus drive to that double great takedown we see till credit to him he’s gonna get this underhook while he’s on the way back down and he’s GNA try to throw him over which was pretty cool I got to give him credit for not quitting he’s gonna try to throw dricas over but you’re gonna see dricus just kind of get his bearings and then just watch this watch him just start unloading right away just very smooth man he’s always on task so right when he gets positioned we see till trying to turn away but we’re just going to watch the detail work here by dricus we see dricus he’s putting all of his weight on top of till there’s no space okay we’re gonna watch this leg and we’re gonna watch this hook he’s already got this hand across the face this hand hasn’t connected but you want to be like a sticker on top of somebody right you want to keep your body on them no matter where they go right we could say backpack when people move around but you don’t want any space anywhere and you see how he’s got all his body weight on him and this is really the reason why he’s going to finish because till does not have anywhere to go and you’re gonna see so he’s gonna connect his hands here now we see the connection but we know and our fans know too I mean this is not under the chin at all I mean this is across the face but boy it does not feel good and when he puts his weight in it I want everybody to pay attention to this foot and watch how he sneaks in this hook once he sneaks in the hook that allows him to get that power and drive his hips down so keep watching watching that now I want you to watch him drive his hips down and you’re going to watch Till’s legs and body come up and then he’s got all that torque on Till’s face and that’s why till tapped people were like well it wasn’t under the chin it wasn’t this it wasn’t that look at his legs going up this is the worst position to be in and you see the squeeze right we talked about the subs so really good at using all that size to get in there and get those finishes great work here by dck is getting the Finish against Darren till and we’re going to show this because we know Strickland will go for takedown sometimes here he against Derrik Brunson he’s throwing a leg kick and Derrick Brunson times this and we see him trying to catch the leg right and we’re gonna see dricas is takedown defense okay he’s pretty off balance here Here Comes Brunson he’s trying to finish a shot look at dricus separating and this is what you want to do if I can separate your head from my body you can’t take me down you need your head to be connected so he separates here and we’re going to see Brunson this was a crazy fight Brunson tries to come come back inside and driz could go down here on top which I think is important but he doesn’t he’s got a good position here he could snap him down but instead of doing that he allows Brunson to kind of get back up so we know that dricus has taked down defense and he’ll keep it on the feet and that might come into play here don’t be surprised if Strickland shoots a shot so this is the third round these guys were really tired this was a high energy fight and this is the ground and pound that we spoke about I just want you to watch this shot I’m just going to play it in slow motion watch this Hammer fist to Derek Brunson I mean the violence level here is I mean right on the chin Brunson survives that one he looks like he’s almost out right here but you’re gonna see Brunson kind of come to life and kind of try to pick his head up in this left hand just right on the chin man and you can see brunson’s eyes roll back devastating ground and pound having the guy that size on top of you pound and and we’re going to see that the corner is going to actually throw in the towel here and I absolutely agree with this I think that it was a very good move by the corner we see them here shortly there they are throwing in the towel and that was the right thing dricus is so powerful if he gets on top of you and you can’t move he can put some real damage on you and I look for him to try to do that at some point in this fight I’m interested to see what Clips you use for Shan Strickland’s grappling because as you said he’ll shoot a taked down but I can’t off the top my head think of the last time he did it when he fought Abus magedov and Jared caner and Alex poda and against Israel adna he’s content to just go on the feet and play defense in his grappling it’s funny everybody thinks that but when you watch the film you see the grappling so BJJ black belt he will use his grappling he’s opportunistic about it as well so here we go we’re going to use a takedown defense going right off of dricus we know dricus in that same exact position and we’re just going to let this play we’re going to show you all the different things here he is trying to jack up the underhood hook All the Right Stuff okay against Hermanson but I got to give Hermanson credit Hermanson doesn’t give up he’s going to go to the single leg and he’s going to try to pull Sean Strickland away from the cage Strickland’s on that head remember we talk about separating that head same as dricus he’s trying to separate that head but here we go he pulls him away from the fence Hermanson and he is able to connect his hands right he went to that single dig dig dig dig so now we’ve got a body lock okay different a different defense he takes Strickland down right when he should be able to get the hooks you see Shan Strickland pop up and get his butt up and right when he does that he kind of sends Hermanson up a little bit and he kind of loses his balance right and this just shows you how fast Sean Strickland can react because his cardio is so good so he’s right up and he’s right back on the hands you can see Hermanson still has the lock but how fast Strickland popped up and got back to the fence A+ work I mean that’s exactly what you want to see as a the coach once he gets to the fence we’re just going to watch him peel hands here and this is so exhausting for the guy that’s trying to hold you which we we got to see what drick Us’s gas tank is like in in the grappling we see the risk control here from Strickland he’s still not quite there you want to turn inside and face and get an underhook and he’s just going to end up he’s going to keep working working working working working and then now he is back in that exact same spot he was in the beginning right he’s got the underhook and now he’s free so Strickland is a goer with his takedown defense it’s very good he’s not going to lay still if he gets taken down or put Against the Cage so here he is against Brenan Allen and we got to give Brenan Allen some credit looked great in his last fight against Paul Craig especially on the ground we know he’s a very good black belt so we see Shan Strickland here and he’s throwing a punch and this just shows you again his grappling is there he’s Landing a punch right here and we see Brenan Allen throwing the left kick we know dricus likes to throw the left kick so here comes the left kick watch how fast Shan Strickland just goes from from punching to getting that leg when you get this leg this is a Muay Thai sweep you hold the leg and then you actually run forward right and you push the other guy down you literally hold his leg and push him down he’s going to try to push right into his chest and run him forward and this is a Muay Thai sweep but it takes really good timing and Strickland showed that so he’s going to start running forward here there’s the push and here comes the run run run he doesn’t quite get it so he’s going to try sweep the leg and now he’s in the top position so Strickland will get these takedowns man off of kicks too which we know dricus likes to throw so what does he do when he’s on top well we talked about his pedigree very very good on top good ground and pound good positioning but here’s the part I really want to get into these guys are both very good here if you get up they’re not going to just let go They’re Gonna hang on you they’re gonna lean on you here comes some big knees we’re gonna see a big knee here from Sean Strickland here in a second bang there’s one and he’s just all over Brennan Allen so he doesn’t give him a chance to rest he knows how to really make guys work against defense and this is huge in MMA so and all goes back to him there’s that tight waist again here we see the hand positioning and now he’s about to try to throw that hook in it all goes back to the cardio can he just get that pace going and really wear drus down if they do grapple so great stuff here by Sean Strickland he will grapple there’s the footage to prove it there it is so people don’t look at him that way but he he definitely has that in his game and he’ll utilize it and that was one of his first appearances in the middleweight division back in 2020 before that he was a welterweight and that motorcycle accident that sidelined him for two years man that’s just a blip on the radar now for Strickland it’s quite impressive X factors for each we’ll start with the Challenger what do you say X Factor on drus dupy the power man the guy’s got major power right he is shown knockout power inside the Octagon we know how durable Strickland is he’s not going to be easy guy to get out of out of there right I mean lost a split decision to caner the biggest chance I think dricus has is to K or TKO to get him hurt and he’s very good at setting it up we talked about how he switches stances and all his creative setup so let’s take a look at dricus and and the power that this guy possesses let me tell you something the hardest reversal one of the hardest reversals is a Kimura it’s a power move right it’s like here you I’m a strong guy watch what I do and when you take a look at this dude look at him like he’s looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger right here I mean he’s all blown up the veins are everywhere and this would be Trevon Giles last fight at middleweight probably because of this right the size we’re just going to let this Play here’s the Kimura he’s got this lock here for you know let me explain it to our fans most of you guys know since you guys are so smart he’s got this lock here and he’s trying to take this this way right well that’s all find in Dy look at his body position he’s going this way play this has to be 100% strength the way he executes this the technique I mean yeah it’s there but this is not easy to do and watch what he does he’s going to take Giles all the way over to the top and complete that sweep so that is a strongman move if I’ve ever seen one especially in that position Giles gets him up against the fence okay he’s in trouble let’s see what he does here little rope a do Boom Out Go The Lights we talked about his ability to Sprint into stuff we talked about how he will Sprint into things here he is backed up against the cage right and you see J’s here he’s confident he’s doing good I’ve got you backed up against the fence I’m right where I need to be and dricus doesn’t look like he’s in a great spot look at where his feet are they’re even he’s not in a powerful stance watch the way he does this he’s going to bounce off the cage this is the jab and we see the huge mistake from Giles backing straight up in the what in the a Zone you never back straight up in that line because you don’t know what the other guys’s going to do is it one punch is it two is it three is it four Giles does not guess right here and we see a huge right hand I mean the power that he’s got in that shot and you can see Giles is kind of out on his feet here look at his head his eyes open up here so dricas can put you out with one shot just like that if you miscalculate here he is against tarez again we’re gonna show the front kick from tarez very similar to Strickland here’s that front kick just out of the way here from dricus okay he’s good at that distance management so we see dricus he’s in the Orthodox stance right everything is here’s the one here’s our two okay tarz is making that read dricus gets out of the way of the kick but before Tavarez can even drop his foot back down he already knows all right once you drop your foot down you’re going to be in my range and that’s exactly what he does once tavaras drops his foot we see the range fire here one we’re GNA see a nice cross here two okay that’s great cool all right we see tarz is swinging over the hook here we see he really got you know touched really good here but we’re not done again we see dricus is in the Orthodox stance watch this foot dricus is going to take this foot he is going to step forward to this spot right here and he is going to switch to a overhand left while simultaneously stepping to Southpaw we’re going to see this and this is real tricky stuff here he steps forward watch this left hand boom and this left hand hits him right on the chin that’s just not something you think right the guy goes one two and then steps forward and throws this left hand these are the things that he does and watch how he wobbles tarz here backs him up and tarz is hurt right here we’re going to see tavarus checking his nose kind of like oh what was that so there’s dricus in his slickness right and that’s where I really think he’s the most dangerous here for Strickland the odd things that he does and where he can generate these power shots and here he’s against Perez and this is why we don’t spin boys and girls don’t spin at the wrong time for no reason when someone’s close to you we see Perez is going to try to spin here and when he does try to throw that spin look at this little short hook right here and the impact of it right on the side of the head and this is right where the equilibrium is and he is going to put Perez down here but it’s the follow-up shot I want you guys to see this guy so good at locating same with the Whitaker fight watch the follow-up shot here we go he hits the ground and he’s face first right here he’s almost done but it’s this punch right on the chin I mean he calculated that as he was falling down and caught him right on the chin and watch his head he’s done right there so that was with the punch that really really put him mouth dricus tons of power not a guy that you want to mess with and it’s unorthodox man so you start thinking like whatever I got your timing he backs up against the cage and explodes into something like that very dangerous guy and I really feel like this is The X Factor for him that’s the X Factor in the good column Rodriquez and I’ll just say this because I know where you’re going with Strickland rare that a championship opportunity comes without a five round fight and that’s the case Rodriquez dupi the only other one I can think of off the top of my head is sha Al wasn’t in a five round fight before he fought for gold Strickland has been there over the course of 25 minutes repeatedly in his career man you you nailed it brenon repeatedly he has been in six main events in the UFC five of them have went the full 25 this will be his seventh one that kind of experience I mean you you there’s no way to replace it we have seen drias get tired in that Brunson fight I mean those guys were kind of all over the place and you know he came out on top but I really feel like this deciding factor can Strickland put that gas on dricus deal with his power and all that other stuff survive through that first two or three rounds and then really pour on the gas tank what does this guy look like in the fourth and fifth we know what the champ looks like so let’s take a look and here he is against the great Israel this doesn’t need an explanation look at how fired up he is this is the 25th minute of this fight he is walking him down screaming yelling clinching and he’s not tired at all I mean and look at adisan you know I mean anyone would tired after 25 minutes but Sean Strickland’s got a motor on him and he is really coming into his own so this is just an examp if he can do this against Israel at a with no fear I mean what can he do so hands up and here he is against caner another very physical guy he was going to lose this fight by split decision but look at him this is the very last 10 20 seconds of the fight I mean just throwing at Canon and let me just say this if you run out of gas this is what happens with Sean Strickland and he took this fight I think on like four days notice or something and he fought maged the first round maged kind of got him I think maybe even on some of the judge’s scorecards and everyone was like oh wow but Sean Strickland had this little smirk on his face like he knew a secret that nobody else knew and he was right once you get tired against him he will just hunt you down and we see him hunt him down and look at this punch he doesn’t care this is from a southpaw position this is a lead right hand watch this punch boom the impact he’ll find you man because he’s not tired and here’s what he’s gonna do he’s gonna put those numbers on you in that volume and he’s gonna finish the fight so if drias has any moments where he kind of stalls or gets tired similar to the Brunson fight I look for Strickland to put it in overdrive and really try to finish the fight as you said uh repeatedly been in Main Events and repeatedly gone the full 25 minutes has Sean Strickland first five round opportunity in the UFC for drias dupi let’s go to keys to Victory and uh interested to see how you sum it all up after going through all that game film we’ll start with the champ got to push the pace man we just talked about the five round experience you know how many main events he has how much time he’s put inside the octagon and we know he gets stronger as the fight goes on we know that he gets momentum and he keeps building his game as we’ve shown we don’t know about dricus and obviously his team knows that his Camp knows this is the first five round fight he’s gonna come out and push the pace heavy and quick I think he needs combination striking dricus is really good at sprinting otherwise he’ll kind of go one and two at a time right he also kind of gets hit a little bit as the fight plays out cuz he gets a little bit tired I feel like if Strickland can throw three and four kind of like that Canon ear four and five he’s going to end up Landing those fourth and fifth shots and possibly hurting uh drias Strickland’s not a power puncher but he can put you down as we’ve shown so I really look for him to set it up and put numbers on him and really try to wear him out and lastly he’s got to win the scrambles we know he can grapple you know we showed that uh but we don’t know how it looks with dricus on top right and no matter what he doesn’t want to be pressed against defense with dricus he doesn’t want to have dricus controlling in the clinch he definitely doesn’t want to be on the bottom of dricus so he’s going to have to win the scrambles and really kind of be the one that continues to dictate how this fight plays out all right let’s shift to the Challenger drus D plus okay so the Challenger he’s got to pressure forward early he cannot let Strickland get that momentum going because once he starts getting the momentum man we saw Alex Pereira just got him out of there early and I really think that that’s what he’s going to try to do they know how good his cardio is he’s never done five rounds in UFC so no matter how good it is he’s never done that so they’re really going to want to try to bank some rounds early hurt Strickland get ahead so that way they’ve got options and I think he’s going to have to come forward and he does he’s an aggressive guy so I look for him to come forward in the beginning he’s got to utilize his grappling question mark we keep talking about is we don’t know how that’s going to look right is his strength going to play a factor can he hold Strickland down get some top position we really haven’t seen that at middleweight you know we have not seen Strickland get controlled we saw what happened against Hermanson he can grapple man and he’ll get out of those spots but maybe drias can really expose him get some top control and hurt him early lastly he’s going to have to keep his back off the fence all these clips where does Strickland hurt people against the cage he backs them up with his footwork he gets them backing up and thinking with all the little things he’s doing and then he smokes him with that right hand down the middle Strickland is simple but very good at what he does he cannot allow himself to get back against the fence he’s got to win all these exchanges and kind of try to dictate the pace as well well we haven’t seen drus dup plusy tested over five rounds in the UFC we also haven’t seen him lose since he’s been in the UFC Dr is unbeaten in the octagon and looking to give the country of South Africa its first UFC champion meanwhile Shan Strickland’s rise in the MMA world as a personality of something how about as a UFC champion now in 2023 and he looks to defend the belt in Toronto to start 2024 for safe saoud I’m Brendan Fitzgerald it’s the headliner for the middleweight title at UFC 297 enjoy the fight thanks for watching UFC [Music] breakdown