3 things Sean Strickland need to change about his fight game style NOW
Sean Strickland suffered an embarrassing defeat against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312, sparking discussions about his fight style.
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Sean Strickland [via- BJPenn]
Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 may well end up being one of the most unsatisfying main events this year, but it also highlighted something pretty major: Strickland needs to change up his fighting style, and QUICK.
Strickland was predictable, lackluster, and clearly hoping that he could ride out the full 5 rounds with his opponent, but DDP was there every step of the way and his gastank didn’t falter like some predicted it may well have. With such a (quite frankly boring) loss in the main event of a PPV card, it’s going to take something drastic to get him back into title contention anytime soon.
Taking all of that into consideration, here are the three biggest adjustments I believe he must implement to stay relevant in the UFC’s middleweight division and potentially get his hands on another title fight.
When you look at Strickland’s overall UFC stats, it paints a clear picture about the sort of fighter he is and what he needs to work on, and I’ll be using these to highlight the sort of changes he needs to work on:
| Statistic | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Significant Strikes Landed per Minute (SLpM) | 5.95 | High output, indicating a volume-heavy approach. |
| Significant Striking Accuracy | 42% | Moderate accuracy, could improve precision. |
| Significant Strikes Absorbed per Minute (SApM) | 4.57 | Takes a fair amount of damage, needs better defense. |
| Significant Strike Defense | 60% | Solid defensive rate, but still gets hit often. |
| Takedown Average (TD Avg.) | 0.73 | Attempts takedowns occasionally, but not a key part of his game. |
| Takedown Accuracy (TD Acc.) | 64% | Efficient when attempting takedowns. |
| Takedown Defense (TD Def.) | 76% | Strong takedown defense, hard to get him to the ground. |
| Submission Average (Sub. Avg.) | 0.2 | Rarely goes for submissions, mainly a striker. |
1. Sean Strickland needs to be more adaptable mid-fight
One of the biggest glaring issues with Strickland’s performance on Saturday night was his inability to make any sort of mid-fight changes. His approach was pretty much his usual jab-and-teep-heavy game plan, which has worked in the past but was completely ineffective in this 185lb title fight.
Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick of Xtreme Couture, was literally telling Strickland to try and engage in the later rounds because he was 4-0 on pretty much anyone with eyes’ scorecards, yet he didn’t. Despite the fact that I personally do not agree with Strickland on most things in life, I did at least think that he had a decent fight IQ, which was debunked in 25 minutes on Saturday night.
2. Fighting with more urgency and risk-taking
I somewhat covered this in the first point, but the fact is that Strickland needs to have more urgency and take some more risks when he is fighting in the octagon. Across his MMA career for the UFC, Strickland has a Takedown Average of 0.73. Only having 0.73 Average Takedowns Landed per 15 minutes and 64% of those being successful shows that he needs to shoot WAY more.
Sean Strickland has managed to use his impressive wrestling defensive abilities to keep the majority of his fights on the feet, with a 76% Takedown Defence rate. 76%, so three quarters of ALL of the takedown attempts on him he has managed to stuff, that is pretty sensational for an MMA fighter who relies mostly on his striking ability.
If Strickland wants to get back into contention for the 185lb title then he needs to shake it up a bit and shoot for more takedowns, not just try and stuff the ones coming at him to keep it on the feet. His opponents have figured out his gameplan and doing the same thing over and over again is no longer going to cut it.
3. Sean Strickland needs to “dig deeper” and widen his attacking arsenal
IF Strickland is going to continue to rely on his striking game, then he needs to diversify how he throws his strikes. Strickland has an extremely impressive 5.95 Significant Strikes Landed per Minute (SLpM) rate across his UFC career, but at this point he needs to be less readable by his opponent.
ESPN analyst Din Thomas was absolutely brutal in assessment of the fighter’s lack of depth, saying that he felt “cheated” in the UFC 312 post-fight show:
I know I’m hard on Sean Strickland. I know it but it’s because I’m cheated. I feel cheated by (Strickland). I hear about these gym stories, these wars that you get into, I hear about how great you are and then you go in these fights, these high-level fights and you give us that. You cheat us.
Din Thomas via MMAJunkie
I feel like I haven’t been anywhere near as brutal as Thomas in my own assessment, but I absolutely agree that Strickland has to find that next gear when he is in these high pressure main event situations. He is clearly an elite-level fighter, you don’t get to the top of a UFC division without being elite-level, but his ability to adapt and his fight IQ needs to improve if he is to try and get another shot at the title.
I don’t find what he says when promoting entertaining in the slightest, but a lot of his fans do…maybe he should try being as entertaining in the octagon so people don’t feel “cheated.”
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Jake Skudder
(28 Articles Published)