A major talking point both before and after his fight with Paulo Costa this past weekend was the fighting style of Sean Strickland.
In back-to-back fights, Strickland showed how his unique approach can both be very effective and cause him some issues.
His title win over Israel Adesanya was a great display of defensive pressure but against Dricus Du Plessis, he lost close rounds by not opening up or landing eye-catching strikes.
The former middleweight champion got the win at UFC 302 but it was very much more of the same from the Xtreme Couture fighter as he walked Costa down, kept him at range and blocked anything coming back at him.
It worked for him in New Jersey but there’s no denying that his unique approach can be both his biggest weapon and drawback at the same time.
Robert Whittaker Doesn’t Envy Paulo Costa After Saying How Frustrating It Must Be To Fight Sean Strickland
In recapping the fights on his MMArcade Podcast, Robert Whittaker spoke about the style that Strickland brings to the Octagon.
The former champion is one of the few top middleweights that “The Reaper” is yet to cross paths with and from his words, it doesn’t sound like it’s something he’s looking forward to.
Whittaker spoke about how nobody fights quite like Strickland does in his unorthodox stance and movement and how he could feel the frustration of what is like to compete against just from watching him on TV.
I think that’s just his fight style. His fight style looks annoying as hell dude. He looks like a kid when a brother or sister is like ‘I’m walking forward and if you walk into it, it’s your own fault’ sort of thing. With those teep kicks just like rapid fire one after the other dude and Costa was on his bike the whole time, I think you can’t do that with Sean.”
