“He wasn’t stupid or stubborn,” Chael Sonnen defends Sean Strickland on the latter’s devastating loss at UFC 276
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Sean Strickland- Chael Sonnen
While the world criticizes Sean Strickland for his not so smart gameplan to fight Alex Pereira, Chael Sonnen comes out explaining the actual intention Strickland went into the fight with besides winning. Strickland lost Pereira at UFC 276 main card via knockout in the opening round. It was a lead hook that knocked down Strickland followed by another devastating shot by Pereira on Strickland’s way back up which made the referee stop the fight.
Pereira is now heading for a title fight against the current champion Israel Adesanya. As for Strickland, he has released a couple of videos on his Instagram since his loss where he has admitted to not fighting with the right approach and also showed gratitude towards the fans for the support regardless of the loss. The MMA community too believed that fighting with forwarding pressure and vulnerability to head strikes was not a good way of getting into a scrap against one of the best kickboxers in GLORY Kickboxing’s history.
Chael Sonnen believes Sean Strickland “stole the show” during UFC 276’s Pre-fight press conference
In one of the videos on his Youtube channel, Chael Sonnen, a former multiple-time UFC title challenger, defended Strickland based on the latter being able to attempt to give fans the entertainment they sought when Strickland decided to “stand and bang” against Pereira. Sonnen believes criticizing Strickland is rather rooted in how quickly the fight ended. Sonnen also talked about Strickland’s media success during the pre-fight press conference.
“He [Strickland] went out and gave you what you wanted, is it really fair that we kick him now?” asks Sonnen “I mean there’s a lot of things that we want to see for Sean if anybody stole the [fight] week it was Sean Strickland. If anybody had Israel Adesanya’s attention and detention of everybody, it was Sean, he did a great job, he entertained us all. I am not fully convinced it was stupid or stubborn Sean,” concludes Sonnen.
What do you make of Sonnen’s final assessment of Strickland not being stubborn or stupid as mostly said by trolls and even by former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold? Do you think Strickland will come back stronger with this loss and will pose an even bigger problem to the 185 lbs division? Who do you think should Strickland fight against on his return? Where do you put Strickland amongst the most unique personalities on the current UFC roster?
Also Read: “Title is the goal,” Islam Makhachev open to fight Michael Chandler for UFC Lightweight Championship
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Abhai Singh Tanwar
(1386 Articles Published)