Sean Strickland vs Abus Magomedov | FREE FIGHT | UFC 297

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All right gentlemen you got your instructions earlier protect yourself at all times obey my commands let’s touch gloves good luck Sean will make his opponent go first in that department as he Rees for battle in his adopted home city of Las Vegas aboose Mega medov proud to be

Russian born but proud to represent his home of dorf Germany where he moved at 15 years old second UFC appearance but he has 30 fights to his name 25 wins 20 of those inside the distance maged off the underdog in white Sean Strickland in the black so what

We’re going to see from Sean is predominantly a jab attack right that’s what he does and then as as he finds the open and he finds the Rhythm and he you know he feels safe he starts to un load with the right hands the left hook

Starts to swing a bit but as we see here magam off not giving him chance to do that hate to see that early in the fight it’s never good but 25 seconds In looks like it went to the go to the left eye the right eye St the right eye oh man there’s some redness too there might be a little bit of residual damage on that have a look yeah that’s the ring finger I think it was the ring finger

That got in but I think both got a scrape yeah that was decent oh man gave they one two yeah not the one two that we after no all right so the ringside positions coming in I think I just heard trick say I can’t yeah yeah I I think that’s what

He said as well which would be devastating she was a cold compress like we talked about five minutes to recover for Strickland should he need it stay with him hey which is is a brilliant change by the way yes it is because that was only changed kind of recently it used to

Be 5 minutes for a Gro shot but for an i Poole you had to make a decision real quick can you continue fortunately they made the change as I said yeah and the pressure to make that decision of course you want to continue but I mean it was completely accidental

We do have to be in control of our weapons he will receive a Stern warning but it wasn’t purpose the problem is the fingers are exposed because of the grappling we all know this let’s take another look but you know the fingers are out there you know that’s straight out yeah

Yeah that’s a foul now well it is the fingers have got to be facing the ceiling you know I mean cuz he wasn’t even trying to punch two minutes down three remaining saying it’s blurry so it’s double vision we all know Sean Strickland is as

Tough as they come but he’s got to be smart about this you want to you got to be smart what you say too yeah exactly well you got to be very careful what you one wrong word you know you might just say it in passing you might just be not

Really meaning the words that come out your mouth but if the doctor hears I can’t see they’ll call this [Applause] off but do you go back into a fight with all right compromised Vision Michael bis all right stay here for me all right here we go we’re on there

We go hey up or fist that’s a hard warning yep all right well said by Mark Smith Tom in fight now aboose got off to a very aggressive start at moment ago at the start of the round left hook there the front kick what he used last

Time sees the variety of attacks and there’s a lot of snap and explosion behind them yeah the kicking game of aboose is at the Forefront of his striking and it’s going to it’s going to be up to Shawn to figure out how to deal with those long long weapons that AB boost has Swinging big Strickland in that Unique Style L that you talk about able to block a lot of those looping shots his ability to see shots coming to hand fight and to sort of you know use this almost like a a modified Philly shell which quite frankly in MMA is not

Necessarily advisable but he makes it work for him it’s one of his best assets is his defense but oh that’s a nice shot though it can get him in trouble like it did in the perea fight active middleweights he has the highest striking defense to Sean

Stri with that style go ahead sorry no you’re fine but I was just saying mag laded with that left hook a second ago and jobs are all well and good and they are effective and they are the key to the door massively underutilized in mixed martial arts however hooks they’re way more

Powerful that’s not to say you can’t knock someone out with a jab you can you can break the nose you can bust them up but right now off throwing with a lot of different attacks keep Shan guessing defending well though powerful shot there from magedov when you stand really straight up like

That like Shawn does though it’s really hard to move backward quickly so if you can string together these longer combinations that’s when you’re going to find it because although he deflects so well with his hand fighting in the pocket you can only maintain that so long if you’re moving backwards

That’s a heavy low kick oh and again and that’s another thing because Sean stand so upright a little harder to check that one with the Hun starting to advance a little bit more really nice job there by stri backs up maget off to the fence now two

Minutes to go round one and I think that’s what he needs to do is just really cram the offens of Mago Med stifle him stuff him get in his face and kind of crowd that kicking range if he can do it consistently yeah but those body kicks

Those TS he’s driving the toes into the midsection they’re going to add up they’re going to slow down the breathing and just slow down the pace of Strickland as this fight progresses if you remember from the caner fight it was the leg kicks and the body shots that really gave Sean issues

In that fight as well Sean’s doing a good job for the most part of blocking these big hooks the hand placement is nice he’s using the hands to block them but oh there’s a head kick that gets through biger strike of the fight to this point and now he follows it up with

A change in levels 85% take down defense for but he gets taken down yeah out right to the back and now try to squeeze got to be careful I we’ve always talked about it that Sean’s good on the ground I remember the first time I ever trained with him we

Did stand the p and he did okay you know what I mean but I was more experienc so not saying anything but he goes but he goes he goes at the end goes hey just letting you know I’m even better on the ground all right budy relax stricklin passing the first ground

Test as he explodes to his feet pretty quickly after that yeah it’s going to be hard to submit Shan stri but it makes martial arts as I’ve been saying all night sing them up the shots first opportunities are presented well a five round fight definitely favors Sean strickman in his

Style because he can do this pace yeah this sort of paper cut pace for eight rounds 10 Rounds if he needed to yeah and certainly on the side of Mag he’s using way more explosive movement you know that the pace what he’s putting out here throughout five rounds would be

Hard to keep strictly is a much more economical style look he’s just throwing out little Jabs here and there taking his time it’s favored to rounds magov is almost sprinting the entire time oh counter shot there from magedov Strickland and magedov head to round two right here Sean right here

Sean let’s take a look at some of the body work here nice kick there for from Maga made off but these kicks these front kicks to the body the TS and then this one he brought right over the right hand of Shan Strickland doesn’t quite connect but that could have spelled

Danger if he was a little bit closer there was a bit of urgency in the corner strickling late in the round from Chris Curtis I believes he saw an opening there and we’ll see if they try to exploit [Applause] it Eric Nicki out of extreme Couture pleased with the work that Strickland

Did in the first five rounds considering the eye poke considering it’s a five round fight they like the effort yeah yeah I mean I I think what he’s saying is look listen we lost that round okay but more on volume not necessarily a ton of damage scored against you you’re

Still calm you’re not getting out class yeah you lost that round but we got five we got four more so let’s not panic there’s a one and I think that’s what Curtis was talking about they wanted to double up the jab and it led to this Strickland starting to swarm a little

Bit and send a [Applause] message the body language not great as he stumbled along the fence the momentum is clearly swung in this fight you can see sha really starting to find the mark that one two did a lot of damage magov as you say he’s completely changed the

Posture the look on his face the confidence is gone well he’s breathing hard as well and and Sean I mean the exact same expression as the beginning of round one that’s a nice combination by Shan and he does stay very calm in these situations and again countless hours of sparring that will do

That nice combination six punches he’s stringing together there he can’t cover up like that he can’t go into a shell just allow sh to tea off there a good one two cuts right through the guard this feeling right here is what Sean Strickland lives for knowing that

The that the Finish is starting to roll his Direction very accurate now landed almost at will there’s a fire back from abambo magam but again the body language is not great I think aboose would be smart to start mixing in some level changes look to clinch up oh the left o just heard

It he’s going to be looking to see a third round magga made off not looking good Johan Strickland growing in posture growing in confidence putting other the combinations a magam made up is on shaky legs halfway through round number two and Strickland has Abu smam off on the

Ropes I think if sea starts to vary his Target a little bit look for some uppercuts look for some hooks right now he’s just throwing these straight shots and [Applause] oh and strick is undeterred you wonder how much sting magov has in return cuz stricklin look good here this is a beautiful

Combination Strickland’s on fire here now having a great time Maga rips to the body but sha says no thank you let’s go magov is looking very tired he’s looking hurt looking like he wants a way out he cannot wait for the end of this round to come and on the flip side John

Strickland’s having a whale of a time yeah this 100 seconds is going to feel like an eternity from it does Brendon it’ll feel like a lifetime Mark Smith referee Mark Smith has taking a close look as well he looks like he has a wounded animal corner right now to Sean

Strickland you if you look all the snap all the explosivity all the power confidence everything m Al physically it’s all gone from mag up he’s got nothing left oh my goodness a Grimace and a huge as he backs up Strickland said I want to turn him

Into a punching bag he has largely done that in the second round M has been a punching bag it almost feels like sea is playing with his food a little bit that’s it will do it 45 seconds oh man what are we waiting for it’s done it’s over continuing to hammer away beautiful

Performance that’s six Shan Strickland by knock out in round two that’s his best performance yet absolutely he said he’d show him a whole new level in the octagon and that’s exactly what he did I mean he went out there I mean the first round wasn’t looking good but he

Took his time you know stayed calm stayed composed knew what he was capable of it in the second round turned it on I mean let’s take a look at this I mean beautiful stuff from Sean Strickland right off the bat and he has such a simple game it’s ones and twos but it’s

The pressure and the volume and the Relentless attack as soon as he finds a weakness he begins to chip at it and Chip at it and Chip at it and eventually Abus magov just had one direction to go and that was out last time he finished his opponent inside the distance was his

Second appearance of the middleweight division back in 2020 almost 3 years ago Eric Nicks it good looking out buddy to make the result official with Joe Martinez ladies and gentlemen the end comes officially 4 minutes 2 seconds round number two referee Mark Smith steps in puts a halt to this fight for

Your winner by TKO Sean strick