Sean Strickland is crowned as Middleweight Champion
Photo Credit: The Mirror

As mentioned by From The Stands journalist Josh Betar, the last time there was a “93” in the number of UFC pay-per-views Holly Holm shocked the world in Australia by knocking out the dominant champion Ronda Rousey. As the old adage goes, history repeats itself. Here at UFC 293 in Sydney Sean Strickland to the shock of the MMA community around the world delivered a masterclass performance and defeated one of the best middleweights of all time in Israel Adesanya.

In the first round, it was clear that true to his word Sean was ‘going to do the man dance’ with Adesanya and put him on the backfoot early. Israel struggled to land clean on Sean in order to gain his respect in the fight. This was quickly followed by a devastating cross that dropped the champion late in the first followed by a flurry that had fans wondering if the fight was going to end in the first.

As a credit to the champion, Israel survived the first round and proceeded to attempt to point fight Strickland through the second, third and fourth rounds, before Strickland had another dominant round in the fifth, securing the victory. The roof was blown off the Qudos Bank Arena when ‘And New’ was announced by the voice of the octagon Bruce Buffer. The relief, the joy and the excitement was visible to see over the newly crowned champion and the team from “Xtreme Couture” who have taken Sean Strickland from a “fan favourite” to a world champion.

As for what’s next for the new middleweight king, at the post fight press conference Dana White suggested that an immediate rematch for Israel Adesanya was likely, though fan sentiment on this seems to be split.

On a card where excitement was somewhat lacking from the fans in comparison to UFC Perth, UFC 293 delivered an action packed night of knockouts, submissions and a jaw dropping championship change that will be remembered as one of the biggest upsets in the sports history alongside the aforementioned Holly Holm knockout over Rousey.