Sean Strickland just defeated Paulo Costa at UFC 302. Video features Sean Strickland's fights with Dricus Du Plessis, Jared Cannonier, and Abus Magomedov. Follow me on Instagram: / cheblair For Business Inquires ytmmache@gmail.com
I actually like the way he fights people want a reason to bitch people want more striking and that's all Strickland does but then people say he's boring it's stupid
@@cotybreannaeastwood tbf people have said they hate how izzy fights for years and he is pure striker. its not about ground vs standing. its about whats fun to watch and point fighting isnt fun to watch. period.
@@cotybreannaeastwood I rather have wrestling than pointfighting : ) Sean Strickland never goes for the finish or takes risks, just like Izzy, he'll sit there at range, throw jabs, just like Izzy with his counters, waiting for the fight to end so he can win on scorecards. I'm more afraid of Belal finishing someone with a submission than I am of Sean Strickland knocking someone out.
Seans coaches have actually been saying the exact same thing, his style is effective but its really difficult to get ahead of your opponent just jabbing and teeping when the scoring criteria is looking for big impact. Which is why he loses split decisions
@@prosandconsofintelligentco8047 at some point accumulation matters toward "effective striking" That fight was razor close. The cannonier fight was a straight up robbery
@@prosandconsofintelligentco8047 The scoring criteria isn't "bigger shots" it's damage you 40 IQ worm. Look at Sean, look at Ddp. Very obvious who won that fight filthy casuals
Costa should've racked up the pace tbh. His style isn't fitting for that high level of MMA and hes gonna just keep losing in similar fashion if he doesn't do something to actually dish damage
Ehhhh, that can lead to him getting knocked tf out. What makes him so good is how elusive he is and he doesn’t exactly have the best chin to risk going wild all the time
Bingo. People confuse Strickland's skill set for his skill level. The guy leans on the basics, and so everyone assumes he's basic, but the WAY he implements that limited and basic skill set is masterful. Honestly, he's a nightmare for practically anyone to fight.
these judges HAVE to be held accountable in post event press conferences where they explain their scoring cards because this was the most insane scoring i have seen since Cory Sandhagen 50-45'd Chito and one judge gave it to Chito. crazy.
He tried to spin though, right? I think Sean read the spin from a mile away. I think if costa did more combo stuff or more sophisticated set ups he may have had more success (maybe, because people recently cant seem to set anything up, both credit to Sean and bit silly of their opponent)
I think you made a really good point here, It makes perfect sense why Strickland keeps ending up on the wrong side of split decisions and how one judge gave Paulo 4 rounds. All you need is one significant shot to get ahead of him in a round per the scoring criteria
find someone that can land that big shot to get ahead though. who is it? paulo failed imo. strikland landing the volume and the biggest shots of each round. the only guy i can think of is du plesies.
Why is Strickland's style suddenly boring when just like a month ago he was everyone's favorite fighter and everybody "loved his style". He literally did nothing different this fight. Every sean Strickland fight this is always what he does, win or lose. Sometimes the other guy presses more or less action than Costa did, but idk why everyone's hating on Sean all of a sudden when this is all he's ever done in the octagon
his style was always boring and all the people that were jumping on the bandwagon are just izzy haters and/or trump/colby fans looking for the next inbred ufc fighter to dick ride so they pretended to like his boring ass style and now that hes not champ they are jumping off the bandwagon
No one loved his style though The guy is probably the most coward fighter that ever existed in mma His skills are literally a by product of his insane Defense mechanism and fear of engagement, he’s good because hes neurological abilities have allowed him to develop a style which produces the best results with the lowest risk possible I still remember him inviting hermanson to brawl in the last 7 seconds of the fight and soon as hermanson came in the middle Sean still avoided him and run away 💀💀💀 he’s a weird individual His personality is weird too, an excellent fraud and pretender
His style was always boring, but all the dumb vocal npcs love him because he spouts out overdone republican talking points and cries constantly about censorship and trannies. But thag after the end of every fight we're reminded that he is boring and that boxing is boring
I thought it was a good demonstration of martial arts on Strickland’s part. He shut down Costa and didn’t take damage. Isn’t that the point of martial arts?
I think it's time to just stop talking about the judging criteria because it's become painfully clear that it's just fake. It literally doesn't matter, the judges and fans literally just ignore it
@@OldMarius-gn5kk you are correct tho, he will continue to get split decisions if he doesn't make small adjustments. I'm sure he knows this and working on it right now
I don't agree with your assessment. If fighter1 has a strong jab [which Sean does] & hits an opponent with 10 consecutive jabs, but then the opponent swings a wild haymaker that's glancing, but has the appearance of rocking fighter1, the opponent with the sloppy haymaker shouldn't get the favorable scoring.
Yeah, the criteria said quite clearly that cumulative effects are important, even if less important than big strikes. But still something to be weighed up on a case by case basis
@michaelcarroll5801 exactly, no 1 size fits all, 10 jabs vs 2 shots that rock a guy and send him visibly wobbled around the cage/ring can absolutely swing a round depending on the momentum etc. Etc., after all effective aggression is absolutely a factor
I feel like this fight (and the ddp fight) has to be a wakeup call to sean, atleast to some extent. There were multiple times in this fight where he was in a state of advantage and he pretty much completely disengaged with costa. If the judges were like objective robots who followed the judging criteria objectively with no mistakes. Sure, sean can continue fighting like he does, but the thing is, they’re not. And eventually another big fights gonna come, and its gonna play out like all these fights do, with the end being sean getting “robbed”.
I like Strickland and Costa. Strickland is like a stalker killer and I'm on the edge of my seat the whole time when I watch him fight, even during this fight with Costa.
Only problem with that which u will realize after u watch him more, is there is no killer part of the stalker killer, he never ramps up or pushes for the “kill” he just stalks them slowly without really doing any killing, that’s why he appears to have endless cardio he moves like Jason but doesn’t kill like it 🤷♂️
@@quintonb9626 "Only problem with that which u will realize after u watch him more" I've seen almost all his fights, so seen enough and still hold the same opinion. "he never ramps up or pushes for the “kill” he just stalks them slowly without really doing any killing" You say "never", I am assuming you are exaggerating. Just look at a highlight reel. Maybe you think he doesn't go for it enough? and is too safe? Fair enough, I can see that. But I still find his style very entertaining, even the fight with Costa was a nailbiter for me.
Its not that hard to understand Sean Strickland the fighter is great defensively and very technical offensively but doesn't mix it up enough or take risks to make it interesting. A lot of Sean's fans are just like Izzy's fans and so on but the walk forward/walk backwards debate really discredits certain styles like counter punchers. Walking forward can be just as boring as a fighter walking backwards but theres also fighters who have the style to know what to do. Sean Strickland knows how to fight but doesn't push the pace enough when his opponents are backed up and clueless. He only takes risks and mixes it up at the last 15 seconds.
Simply stop talking like the Die on the field type gladiator. Lol because hes more of a sit back with a Bow and arrow type than a front line brute. The talking is what makes it cringe
@@mikerhem1273 A bow and arrow is more like standing at a distance, jumping in to land a strike and jump out of range again, minimizing risk. Standing in front of your opponent and throwing shots while deflecting incoming shots is standing in the middle of the battlefield parrying enemy swords type shit.
@@ChucksSEADnDEAD Probably a few different weapons i could have used as an example. Just trying to convey the point that hes a counter sniper. The constant pressure means nothing because he sits behind a really elite defensive shell to the point that his offense is borderline nonexistent
Costa should've just bum rushed for the whole fight, Sean ain't a hard puncher and has no answer for t@rd brawling. Whatever loses to Izzy is what beats Strickland.
Sean definitely has power and Sean showed he can handle a high pressure pace multiple times and I doubt with Costas style it would've been smart to js go in reaching like that even if he would've gotten more success he would've been running right into Sean's punches and he alr looked bad without Sean racking up the pace so gassing himself out to KO Sean would've been dumb and Sean more then likely wouldve went in for a finish
He would of if he could’ve he wasn’t used to fighting someone with a prodding defensive style that doesn’t leave many openings or commit to much. Costa does well when he fights more honest straightforward strikers sean and izzy both change their rhythm and timings on when the big shots or the small shots are coming and costa can’t adapt to it you saw how many times he was reacting in fear when sean would just feint a strike.
@@walmartian422 yes I caught onto that long time ago I made plenty of comments like this I'm glad someone else noticed that. Against Robert, Sean and Izzy he becomes so lossed and the thing they all have in common is they chip at different part at your body or switch it up. When he goes up against fighters that are good at mixing on the feet he struggles so much compared to heavy hitters who just wanna go for the ko like Romero
@@snakeman-metalman157 Yea that's the thing about Sean and Izzy most strikers just kind of throw at around 90 percent or 100 percent every strike. Sean will throw a 20% strike then a 100% strike then the next time it will start with the 100% power then 20% then he will throw nothing at you once he notices that you are starting to defend. These kinds of tactics really mess up peoples internal sense of timing and keeps them guessing and Paulo never really got comfortable in there. Also you noticed in that fight Strickland was consistently checking kicks and he wasn't even doing it on reaction he was just doing it on intuition randomly just raising his knees at opportunities where Costa might throw a leg kick which also really fucked costa up. Most fighters try to check on reaction but Sean was checking kicks preemptively even when no kicks were coming. Sean is really good at covering the deficits in his abilities by just using extremely strong fundamentals and mindgames.
@@walmartian422 yup and with someone like Costa who struggles at adapting to fighters style. Styles where your never throwing the same thing in the row or constantly changing/messing with the rythem really fucks him up and it's clearly starting to become a weak point I wouldn't be surprised if fighters with more power caught onto this and clips him like Izzy did. He should be glad that his last few opponents weren't as committed to knocking him out as Izzy was cause I think it would've definitely been possible with his current style. Hopefully he switches to a more MMA based striking style before he really crash and burns
I don't think so, unlike Costa, dricus is actually willing to crash forward and get in close range where teep doesn't work. If you stay on the outside like izzy or Costa, the teeps are free
@@wtfimcrying He took the pressure out of Sean and that's why he landed a headkick... You have no clue about what's going on in MMA so why don't you do us all a favour and keep your uninformed, casual take to yourself and save us from the cringe and stupidity? Thanks from a Sean Strickland enjoyer.
Crazy how casually Izzy fans talk about public sexual assault like this. Guess it makes sense when their favorite fights molests dogs and they still don't care.
I don't know what more people want, Sean walked Costa back and chased him around for 25 minutes, I'm surprised Costa's leg didn't break considering Sean checked almost every leg kick
I’ll admit I didn’t see this fight so idk if it was different, but Sean’s style is all about minimizing risk and damage. He rarely throws significant combos or tries to finish the fight. His striking and defense are technically sound, but far from interesting to watch. I think it’s because of how he trains, hard sparring all the time. Naturally you would end up fighting this way. He’s a good fighter, but he’s called a “jab merchant” for a reason.
We want Sean to fight the way he talks. The dude talks like he is John Wick looking for more bodies only to shell up and jab for 25 minutes. He talks like Robbie Lawler was, an actual savage. And Robbie was very softspoken after a win. Sean talks like Terminator only to 'fight' like my little pony. That doesn't match up with his big mouth. Pipe it down boy.
It's one of those fights where you can't help wonder wtf their corner is saying. Costa is not a sophisticated fighter and knows it. He should have gone out all guns blazing.
If that’s the judges mindset, throwing big punches but not landing thinking Sean’s now in “danger” of being finished despite not being hit, then he should not judge fights. Avoiding and negating danger should be scored higher than throwing and missing hard punches.
I see Sean’s style as based on the fact that he hard spars constantly. It’s not interesting to watch because it’s all about minimizing damage and taking very few risks.
Costa literally ran the whole fight, I’ll never understand what the judges saw. How is Sean suppose to throw the combinations the fans want to see if Paulo is running around the ring?
"How is Sean suppose to throw the combinations the fans want to see if Paulo is running around the ring?" You do something called cutting off the octagon....... pretty simple concept that can be difficult to master but definiteily can be done. just look at Ilia Topuria vs volk. Ilia is similar to sean in that his arsenal of strikes is pretty limited to just pure boxing plus a rear calf kick. But he 1. extends his combos and sits on his punches putting more power into his strikes and 2. he CUTS THE OCTAGON off so that he can trap his opponent againt the fence. Sean walks in a straight fucking line and doesnt even try to trap his opponent. This is a big part of why hes so fuckign boring dude.
Great points, but I think the judge put the points on the wrong side personally, bc how do you get 46-49 when the other two judges get 49-46 and 50-45!
Unpopular opinion but lowkey Guru's fault for perpetuating this damage thing. There are a few examples of him completely disregarding that effective striking and effective grappling are weight equally, favouring effective striking. After Volk vs Islam 1, there were a few times where he hinted and suggested this idea that because Volks backwards punches did more damage and Islam didn't do damage with the body triangle, that Volk has an argument for that round. He didn't make that argument but he did kinda hint at it. So the effective grappling that got Islam to the extremely dominant position of a body triangle was completely discounted because he wasn't able to get a sub and in trying to go for a sub, he didn't land damage. Seemed like he didn't lean into that fully because he knows how absurd that would sound if he did make that argument. Another example is his Usman vs Chimaev video. I agree with his conclusion that Usman won round 3 because Usman's effective striking had more cumulative impact than Khamzat's effective grappling. Khamzat landed a takedown and established an attack, almost passing half guard. Let's not act like that's 'meaningless control time' because of a lack of GnP damage. It's certainly less effective and less impactful than Usman's striking, hence giving Usman the round, but effective grappling isn't only scored when you use it to land damage or get a sub finish.
Legal blows that have immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute towards the end of the match with the IMMEDIATE weighing in more heavily than the cumulative impact. Successful execution of takedowns, submission attempts, reversals and the achievement of advantageous positions that produce immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute to the end of the match, with the IMMEDIATE weighing more heavily than the cumulative impact.” It shall be noted that a successful takedown is not merely a changing of position, but the establishment of an attack from the use of the takedown. Top and bottom position fighters are assessed more on the impactful/effective result of their actions, more so than their position. So you're wrong
@@melancholymartialarts7095 How am I wrong? Establishing half guard, pinning the opponent and almost passing to side control is definitely not a mere changing of position. It's not effective enough to win Chimaev the round but it absolutely counts as an establishment of an attack from the use of the takedown.
Just curious what attacks Islam attempted from his body triangle? Effective grappling, like effective striking, is that which contributes towards the end of the fight. Islam's body triangle was beautiful but he barely tried anything from his position and rode out the round. That's worth very little points in and of itself, and they should have been stood up before the round ended because of a lack of activity. If he'd got his arm around Volk's neck, controlled his arms, put some sort of squeeze on, I could see your point. But just clinging on and stalling is not effective grappling contributing towards the end of the match.
@@mikedangerdoes My overall point is that effective grappling, being listed in the first criteria with effective striking, weighs equally with effective striking, thus making this scoring system not a 'damage-based scoring system'. The issue that I take with 'damage-based scoring' is that it excessively favours striking and places excessive conditions for the value of effective grappling to be counted. Regarding your point about Islam doing nothing with the back: "Top and bottom position fighters are assessed more on the impactful/effective result of their actions, more so than their position" For one, that means position still counts towards scoring, just less so than impact. Furthermore, look at the impactful result that getting to the back had - it limited Volk's offensive options to pitter patter punches and gave Islam ample opportunity to try to attack his neck with huge margins of error. Volk was put on the defensive (and defended beautifully) and even when he found an opportunity to throw punches, Islam quickly was able to hide his head and throw punches of his own from a more mechanically advantageous position. Feel free to disagree with my interpretation of 'impactful result', as it doesn't explicitly say in the scoring criteria what counts as impactful/effective results. I just think that people who grapple know that taking the back is hugely impactful. I hope it's not too harsh but to say that Islam taking Volk's back is an even position due to lack of damage or sub attempts seems a bit disingenuous. Craig Jones, made that argument and I absolutely think he was being a homer for his buddy Volk. I'd love to hear more about why you disagree. Edit: To add, look at Jiri vs Pereira round 1. Alex had Jiri stumbling like a newborn deer with heavy calf kicks. Jiri landed like 2 elbows but almost all his GnP was stuffed by Alex's frames and overhooks. All judges scored it for Jiri. It seems that the successful takedown into half guard, then being able to posture up - that was an impactful enough position with fight ending potential to win Jiri the round in the eyes of those judges, despite the vast majority of his GnP being stuffed.
@@user-dj4wf8so8t I guess it’s problematic if the standard is Frye vs Takayama. Seems kinda dramatic to me tho. I agree he could afford to be more aggressive and put more mustard on some of his shots.
@@dylanwright9927those guys are really fun to watch. but let's not kid ourselves the way they fought was not anything close to a sweet science. Don't get me wrong toughness is vital for mma and should be valued. But skill should be more appreciated than just entertainment otherwise throw the gracies out of the UFC history books and let's just make it all slap fighting lol that's what some of these fans want.
With respect,you make great points about his style to a judges pov i get that. 🤔 I just will always love his style's personality. 🥊 It's so unique, like a combination of philly shell boxing, takedown defense,and muay thai. Very technical honestly. But i do get it, trust me. Great points, especially if it goes the distance and the judges are left to score it.
Sean is so measured with his aggression, and that's what really works. I want him to extend combos and chase more for excitement, but that leads to risk that could crumble his whole style.
You have to also consider that Sean doesn't have the same power as Costa, DDP and Jared. He's built a style around his strengths, which can often allow him to out cardio bigger hitters. It's obviously not perfect, perhaps the next evolution is to add some more Power punches for the benefit of the judges, but he's never going to crack as hard as those guys.
Yes .. the critera is *effective* striking... But you say yourself Sean's tools are "super effective" at 7:10. Sean clearly got closer to finishing the fight with knockdowns.
There were no knockdowns, literally no knockdowns were counted. I think they realized weak jabs landing as you move back and a blocked head kick didn’t land concussive force on costa skull making his body fail on him but were probably caused by losing balance.
@@oscardolan5626 Paulo Costa landed 28 strikes to the head compared to Sean's 104. The only area he had a lead in was leg strikes which obviously didn't affect Sean's ability to enact his game plan, nor did they "put him in danger". There's literally just no way you can say Sean was in "more danger"...
Here's what you and many others get wrong tho. Yes it is stated in the judging criteria that immediate impact weighs more heavily than cumulative impact. But it does not say how much more. It seems to me like you and some others read that as if it was supposed to mean. If one fighter is winning the entire round, but the other scores a KO, the guy with the KO wins. I think anyone with a brain would say that's bollocks. But unfortunately some judges seemingly lack this understanding.
Good points here. However, as far as getting close to winning, those little hits add up. At the end of his fight with Dricus, he looked fine and was standing between rounds and after the fight, while Dricus looked really beat up and could barely walk. However, Dricus opened him up once with a cut and suddenly it looked like he was winning purely based in the bleeding. A different cut man that would have stopped that bleeding could have completely turned the scoring around. It's pretty silly when that can happen despite one fighter clearly landing more hits, doing a lot more cumulative damage and leaving the fight looking normal instead of beat up.
I know it’s the opposite of what you’re saying but the criteria is so bad that you could argue Sean has a good style for the criteria. “Effective” striking, jabbing and using teeps is the best way to keep pressure off you and stunt someone’s style. Would it not be effective striking on Sean’s part and ineffective on the opponents if he’s severely outpacing them and they aren’t landing big? Judging fights is a case by case thing so I want subjective opinions of well educated commentators and judges. Unfortunately they’re more than happy to give their opinion but it isn’t on the money.
i found the fight to be enjoyable and a classic sean strickland boxing and pressure masterclass, regardless of how much people liked the fight... what should sean do? he marches people down, if they dont have a solution to that its on them. judges being crooked is not his fault either
What is massiveley flawed about this analysis is that the scoring doesn't say that ONE big shot is automatically more important than ALL the cumulative shots/jabs. It just says you should weigh them MORE. Thinking about this, this is actually massively open to interpretation, but I think everybody agrees that 1 big shot does not outweigh 5 minutes of being out jabbed.
Keep in mind throwing kicks against Sean is easier said than done. Sean loves his marching knees as teep feints precisely because he's looking to punish any potential round kick with a teep. A linear strike will pretty much always beat a rounded one, which is why teeps are extremely effective in Muay Thai - and as with all things that are effective in parent combat sports - practically non-existent in MMA save for one guy using it here and there.
i honestly really enjoy the way strickland fights, i find it super interesting BUT it does feel like he needs to add more to it. UFCs best defence, and hes not a strict counterpuncher like izzy so he can actually force his opponents to throw, or use ringcraft to push them into a corner. Hes amazing at creating positions of huge advantage against his opponents....... but then he doesnt fucking nothing with it. strickland with some killer instinct is the mythical fighter i dream of
This is a pretty wild take to be honest,the reason why the teep works is because Sean also has superior boxing. Sean is perfectly willing to stand in the middle if the opponent obliges we have seen that happen but if they do so without takedowns they will take a ton of damage that's why they don't do it. Dricus had the takedown threat without that Sean would have beat him too.
To everyone defending Strickland right now saying “he’s so technical” “he was just fighting smart” “it takes two to tango it’s on his opponent to bring the fight to him”. Understand that all the things you’re saying are the EXACT same things people said to defend Izzy when he had boring fights. Also just because he was walking forward instead of backwards doesn’t really mean anything; people can be effective and high output doing either. I’m not saying costa was blameless but come on guys keep the same energy with fighters you like as you do with fighters you hate.
@@americkseowdevries1443 that’s fair I just don’t see why people are defending this fight so hard when Sean literally said in his post fight it was boring. Izzy was real defensive about those stinky ass performances; he had me mad as hell after the Romero fight every time I talk my family into watching a card with me it ends up sucking.
@@americkseowdevries1443 Izzy didn't come out of his fights saying he's going to kill his opponent,or "I'll bleed for you" though. And a lot of his fights were actually entertaining. He TKO Costa,he Knocked out Pereira of all people,he TKO Whitaker,he had a war with Gastelum. Strickland fights are never entertaining unless he's losing (at least in the typical sense, there's a lot to appreciate in the technical aspect both from Izzy and Strickland).and he always just tries to act like this mad dog in social media and interviews Hell Izzy went up a division and Fought Jan when his own division was getting stale,not to mention going out of his way to bring his Kickboxing rival to the UFC he actually tries his best to be entertaining in the UFC. Strickland's only entertainment value for his fans is talking like an edgy 16 year old with unrestricted internet access.
I was sure hoping you'd have picked up on the fact that a lot of Sean's shots were straight-up whiffs.. I remember watching the highlights at the end and all the shots were blocked or parried; the biggest highlight was the equivalent to booping Costas nose.. Even the announcers got quiet, which is funny, cause Rogan was riding Sean's nuts all night.
Sean has a lot, but what he doesn't seem to have is stopping power. Someone willing to see that, with a good chin, willing to eat the jab to counter with a Roy Nelson overhand, could prove to be a problem. If you're going to let the judges decide the fight, you better give them what they want to see.
It is absolutely ridiculous that 1 shot, that obviously doesn't damage Sean because he just continues to beat the guy for the entire round, gives the other guy the round. That doesn't make sense in any context. If you hit the guy hard but the guy just shrugs it off and keeps punching you in the face for 3 more minutes, then your 1 punch didn't do anything.
I wouldn’t call any of Strickland’s defense necessarily good. It “works” bc middleweight is a weak division and it doesn’t even always work. He leans back at the waist with his upper body behind his legs, stands straight up, reaches down to parry, plods his feet, and much more
Crazy Sean never let his hands go ..but he still dominated the fight.. Costa couldn't get any offense going..Sean dropped him 3 times..it wasn't exciting but why is everyone freaking out ..this is every Strickland fight
If a fighter keeps trying to set something up, and doesn’t throw it, maybe, just maybe, Costa doesn’t like something he’s seeing from Sean’s defense? Costa said he’s going out to Vegas to train with Sean, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Sean completely confused Paulo so much so that he’s gotta go figure out what the hell he’s doing with that wild footwork. While Sean’s style doesn’t work for you and me, it CLEARLY works for him 😂
we need AI to score the fights using all the scoring criteria as parameters and full 360 high precision cameras.. Maybe it won't replace judges (yet) but it might give us a second "look" that is more objective
Sean is amazing but he needs to be more aggressive, especially when he can tell that his opponent is not throwing back as much. He couldve easily TKO'ed costa in the 4 and 5th round but he kept walking forward and jabbing
Strickland himself acknowledges that if you send it to the judges you are on your own. He won a title and is now getting ready to fight for another one. His style clearly works. It works better than Cannonier, who, on paper, actually deserves and deserved the title shot over Strickland. Both are company men. So where's the convo on Cannonier's style?
