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Middleweight upstart, Sean Strickland, will look to continue his sudden rise opposite fellow striker, Uriah Hall, this Saturday (July 31, 2021) at UFC Vegas 33 inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is an obvious understatement, but Strickland’s motorcycle accident changed his life. It kept him on the sidelines for almost exactly two years, but when Strickland returned to action, it was a rebirth. A pretty serious unbeaten prospect back in 2014, Strickland’s progress really stalled when he dropped to Welterweight. Back at 185 pounds, however, Strickland’s fire is renewed. He looks confident and comfortable, which has lead to a trio of really great performances, extending his win streak to four and earning him a better position in the rankings than any point previous.

Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:

Striking

If I may be so bold, Strickland’s recent striking performances remind me a bit of the Diaz brothers. To be clear, there are some major, major differences, but Strickland’s ability to march down his opponents with little steps while doing considerable damage with stiff punches is certainly comparable. I do wish, however, that he’d take a note from those two and target the body more often.

At any rate, Strickland is a boxer first and foremost. All the way back early in his UFC career vs. Luke Barnatt, Strickland showcased a solid jab. He’s still using that probing strike to find his distance and do damage, but Strickland’s hands have been exceptionally loose in recent performances. As a result, he’s really snapping the punch, which is why seemingly innocuous connections are bloodying up the nose and convincing his foes to back off. Strickland doubles up the jab well and will often follow with his right hand.

What’s really interesting about Strickland’s last two victories, arguably the best of his career, is that he employed a pair of very different strategies, though both made great use of his boxing prowess.

Against Brendan Allen, Strickland did tremendous work from the back foot. Allen stalked his foe, looking to establish his own jab and kicks. The low calf kicks were definitely an issue — they usually are against a jabber like Strickland — but the Californian did do a nice job of intercepting Allen’s jab with his own. In addition, he helped avoid the low kicks by scoring a takedown off one early in the bout.

Having at least somewhat mitigated his foe’s primary range offense, Strickland was landing the better shots, encouraging Allen to push forward even harder. Despite his reputation for flat-footedness, Strickland actually changed directions really well once in the pocket. He’d wait for Allen to throw then evade at an angle, often stepping to his left behind a check left hook or intercepting right hook across the center line.

Allen landed some shots, but he consistently walked into harder ones while trying to force a scrap. Just as he started to pick up a bit of momentum with his low kicks, Strickland planted his feet and really sat on a counter 2-3 combination. Both punches landed clean, and Strickland swarmed hard to score the finish of a very bright talent (GIF).

Last time out, Strickland walked Krzysztof Jotko down the entire fight. Initially, Strickland was having trouble getting his jab going and walked into left hands, but he soon made smart adjustments. He began leading with his cross and following up with the left hook, which can often catch Southpaws blind.

Jotko was avoiding the pocket and staying evasive, which forced Strickland to kick more often. He first established a front kick up the middle with his right leg. Then, Strickland began targeting the lead calf with switch kicks. Throughout the second half of the fight, Strickland was lifting his knees in marching steps, keeping his foe confused on which strike was coming and helping him to land more and more significant calf kicks.

The slower Jotko’s feet grew, the more Strickland touched him with punches.

Wrestling

Strickland’s bouts tend to end up kickboxing battles more often than not. He’s definitely opportunistic with his ability to gain top position. For example, his last two takedowns came from catching a kick from Allen and hitting a switch on Court McGee — reacting to his opponent’s offense.

It may not usually be a main aspect of his game plan, but Strickland has been pretty nasty with top strikes when able to get on top.

Defensively, “Tarzan” has defended an impressive 80 percent of the takedowns that have come his way. Often, Strickland will use the fence to defend, leaning against the cage and spreading his legs wide. He does a nice job of hand-fighting from this position, preventing his opponent from locking up the double and keeping him stuck on one leg.

In the last five years, only Kamaru Usman has managed to take down Strickland.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Strickland has secured four wins via tapout in his professional career, but his sole submission inside the Octagon came in his UFC debut vs. Bubba McDaniel. That performance was a great demonstration of how important strikes can be to MMA grappling exchanges, as Strickland pummeled his foe with elbows and punches to convince McDaniel that giving up his back was a good idea.

It was not. Strickland has attacked the back in other bouts, but it has not yet resulted in another rear-naked choke finish.

Fortunately, Strickland has yet to be submitted inside the cage, either. He did scramble with a grappling specialist in Igor Araujo quite a bit back in the day, holding his own with the jiu-jitsu black belt and never winding up in trouble.

Conclusion

Strickland’s confidence is high, and that’s resulting in some great performances. At 30 years of age, “Tarzan” appears to be entering his prime, and if he can score a big win in his first-ever main event slot, it sets him up for a potential Top 5 opponent next.

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Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 33 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN/ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 33: “Hall vs. Strickland” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.

Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.

Holm has not competed at featherweight since June 2018. 

Holly Holm is moving from bantamweight to featherweight, again.

On Wednesday evening, Damon Martin and Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting reported that Holm and Norma Dumont have verbally agreed to fight each other at an upcoming UFC event that is currently scheduled for Oct. 16. Holm took to social media to confirm the fight, but it has not been announced as official by the UFC brass.

The event does not have a location or venue determined yet.

Holm last competed at featherweight against Megan Anderson at UFC 225, where she earned a unanimous decision victory and returned to the win column following a failed title bid against then-champion Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino a few months earlier. Holm then dropped down from featherweight to bantamweight in her next appearance, which was a title fight against Amanda Nunes at UFC 239. She was finished in the first round by way of technical knockout.

Holm is now on a two-fight win streak, scoring unanimous decision victories over Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana at UFC 246 and UFC on ESPN: Holm vs. Aldana respectively. She was supposed to meet Julianna Peña at UFC on ESPN: Rodriguez vs. Waterson in May, but was forced to withdraw after being diagnosed with a condition known as hydronephrosis that required surgery. Holm has since recovered and had her sights set on Miesha Tate for a fight, however, that will have to wait in light of the Dumont matchup.

Dumont has also alternated between weight classes, with her most recent fight coming at featherweight. She defeated former UFC title challenger and Invicta FC champion Felicia Spencer by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night: Font vs. Garbrandt in May. Prior to that win, Dumont also defeated Ashlee Evans-Smith at UFC on ESPN: Smith vs. Clark in what was supposed to be a bantamweight fight, but the Brazilian missed weight.

Dumont stated she would like to keep competing at 135 pounds, but it looks like she will be staying at 145 pounds for the foreseeable future.

With the addition of Holm vs. Dumont, the event in October now has five announced fights. Here is how the card looks:

• Nate Landwehr vs. ?udovít Klein
• Maryna Moroz vs. Luana Carolina
• Andrei Arlovski vs. Carlos Felipe
• Ariane Carnelossi vs. Istela Nunes
• Holly Holm vs. Norma Dumont

Rising middleweight contender Sean Strickland will look to cement himself as a legitimate Top 10 threat when he trades leather with 185-pound striking sensation Uriah Hall in the upcoming UFC Vegas 33 main event on both ESPN and ESPN+ this Sat. night (July 31, 2021) inside APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hopefully nobody gets their nose broken in the process.

Strickland, 30, went viral earlier this year when a grappling session with Cuban bruiser Orlando Sanchez ended poorly (replay here). “Tarzan” insists it was much ado about nothing, particularly when compared to some of his previous gym exploits.

“You know, I like Orlando, but if I knew it would go viral I would have kept on hitting him,” Strickland told James Lynch (transcribed by Adam Martin). “People are fucking dumb, dude, and this is just the stupidity of like Tyron Woodley vs. [Jake] Paul. A video goes viral of me because I hit a guy after the bell that tried to crank my arm? Have you ever been to a fucking sparring session? In training camp I’ve knocked out like four people, I’ve broken multiple noses, I’ve dropped so many people.”

The 23-3 Strickland is one of many fighters aghast at the star power of social media influencers Jake and Logan Paul, who continue to use combat sports as a conduit to pay-per-view (PPV) paydays. Not because they’re talented boxers, but rather because the general public is full of dummies.

That’s according to “Tarzan.”

“The fact that you people care about such a small, little insignificant concept, it just goes to show how small and tiny your brains are,” Strickland continued. “And it insults me that I’m not intelligent enough to market off you guys and make money like Logan Paul does because the stupidity of you all, it’s there for the taking. I don’t know what I have to do to take your money besides acting like an idiot, and I’m willing to do that. That’s how I feel about that.”

Judging by this recent video I’d say he’s off to a great start.

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