The greatest upset in UFC middleweight title fight history belongs to Sean Strickland.

Strickland (28-5) stunned the mixed martial arts world on Saturday, as he claimed the 185-pound championship in a five-round decision over arguably the greatest middleweight of all time in Israel Adesanya. The middleweight title fight headlined UFC 293 inside Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.

Going into Saturday, the biggest upset in middleweight title fight history belonged to Michael Bisping, who famously knocked out Luke Rockhold in a short-notice fight in 2016. Strickland's victory was far less probable, according to betting odds: He was a +500 underdog to Adesanya, making it the largest betting upset ever in a UFC middleweight title fight (Bisping was +400 against Rockhold).

And the way in which he did it -- convincingly, over the course of five rounds -- made it even more unbelievable.

EDITOR'S PICKS

UFC 293 takeaways: Strickland's major upset continues shocking UFC trend
22mESPN
"Am I f---ing dreaming?" asked Strickland, who earned 49-46 scores from all three judges. "Am I going to wake up? Somebody hit me. Literally, never in a million years did I think I was going to be here.

"Izzy is a bad mother f---er. You don't fight a guy with that many highlight-reel KOs. The majority of my friends, he's beat pretty easy. I was even kind of doubting myself at times."

Adesanya was making the first defense of his second reign as middleweight champion. He regained the 185-pound belt in April with a knockout of Alex Pereira.

Adesanya made no excuses for his loss during a brief appearance at the postfight news conference Saturday, before leaving his coach, Eugene Bareman, to take questions from reporters.

"I had a different plan for this, but life throws curveballs at you," Adesanya said. "Win or lose, I wasn't going to say much anyway, but right now, I lost tonight to the better man on the night and I just want to be with people who care about me, my team, so I'm going to go do that."


Sean Strickland was a +500 underdog against Israel Adesanya on Saturday night, making his victory the largest betting upset ever in a UFC middleweight title bout. Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
UFC president Dana White said he "absolutely" thinks a Strickland-Adesanya rematch is in order.

"The rematch is interesting," White said. "That could be the thing, too. You go into the Pereira fight, it's such a big fight, and then you overlook Strickland? I don't know the answers to these questions, but Israel does and I'm looking forward to hearing them."

According to UFC Stats, Strickland outlanded Adesanya 137-94 in total strikes. He dropped Adesanya with a right hand in the opening round, becoming the first fighter to ever do so in the UFC. Even when Adesanya (24-3) suffered a TKO loss to Pereira in their first UFC fight in 2022, Pereira never knocked him down.

A former welterweight, Strickland, 32, wasn't even supposed to be challenging Adesanya on Saturday. The UFC originally looked at a championship fight between Adesanya and South Africa's Dricus du Plessis, but du Plessis was unable to accept the fight due to injury. Adesanya campaigned for Strickland to take du Plessis' place.

That proved to be a mistake, as Strickland essentially neutralized the defending champion's offense. Other than a couple of minutes in the second round, Adesanya looked uncomfortable and unsure of his weapons, even in a fight that never touched the floor. The majority of the shots he landed were glancing, and Strickland showed very little wear and tear after 25 minutes.


Strickland, who was born in California and now trains out of Las Vegas, yelled in Adesanya's direction during the final minute of the fight. He'd spent most of the championship fight buildup taunting and insulting Adesanya, who helped him land the opportunity in the first place.

Adesanya, who has now lost twice in the span of three fights, graciously accepted the defeat. He raised Strickland's arm once the results were read, and then exited the Octagon.

Stylistically, there was nothing surprising about Strickland's approach. He is well-known for his plodding, upright boxing style. His defense was perhaps a bit overlooked, however, as he did enter the contest with the best striking defense of any active UFC middleweight. Unofficially, he defended 65% of Adesanya's strike attempts on Saturday.

ESPN ranked Adesanya the No. 4 pound-for-pound fighter in the world going into UFC 293. Strickland was the UFC's No. 5-ranked middleweight and was only 2-2 in his past four bouts.

Some people will just enter sorrow mode today, meanwhile, their father is not on the ballot paper. So sorry!!!

The judgement is audible already, has any of the contestants proved that they won the election in the first place? Let there be Peace in Nigeria!!!

Gbam e don happen, something your husband hide from you still you use Google and Telescope 🔭 to find it, madam you are now in-between. Either you leave and become single mother or be prayerful and repair your marriage. Something must kill a man!

He will remain number disaster that happened to Nigeria in Years to come!

If PDP is Failure
Then APC is Disaster

Buhari the greatest disaster ever to happen to Nigeria economy and youth! APChit is demonic

What does Buhari know about climate change? The whole trees in the bush are being cut off due to high cost of cooking gas after his administration increased VAT on the product. What a misplaced of priority!

If you don't call off the wedding now, the next we will hear from people's posts on you will be ... May her soul rest in ...

Thank God she left Arsenal for people that love the club. Continue to support your Woman Utd. DJ Cuppy

I watched the man interview by daily Trust , I was moved by his passion to survive and contribute his own part to the community despite his challenge. Kudos to him and the Kano state government. This blind man supposed to be celebrated by every northern government. He has proved that there are still better things to come out of the region.

Oshogbo igbo(Weed) dey worry this man

Why are you calling her Olosho? Bb9ja is just a game, she did those things to gather sympathy votes from people who like what she's displaying. Even you can do worst than that if given the opportunity.

APC and PDP are the same but we should fear party that lies with both sides of their mouth. APC is party of serial liar.

Jesus said it's finished. No wonder Bible says the heart of a man is extremely wicked!

Many men have gone to the grave because they married wrong women, if you love life and yourself, use your common sense that's not common with many people who died because of beauty of a woman. Choleric woman can kill her own children talk less her husband!

Hope they won't end up as failure because anything attached to this government is always ....

Political scavenger. Always looking for soft spots. Maybe he wants to prepare for his oga Jonathan to enter the sinking APC part ship?

Like Nigeria like America. What a world we live in where Giants are being rule by ....

Maybe his time has expired because if you think of police brutality one hardly ever have sympathy for them

This jersey number 10 is too precious to be given to this president.

FIFA wants to go me phobia for people wearing jersey N0 10s because anything about this president always turn somehow.

Supreme Court Governor may not join them today anyway we are waiting

Hope not what am thinking. ?Afefe odi!

He who lives by sword dies by sword

Like NAF like APC government

No man on Earth marries someone like you. You are to materialistic and sophisticated

When our president is pampering his foreign Fulani Herdsmen who are kidnapping people at freewill because Nigeria people denied them Land for RUGA.

What do you expect from a president who doesn't know anything apart from cattle issues. Someone who never had any certificate aside the ones given by Army. No lecture given by him in any form on how to grow economy even the people he appointed are not capable to manage a state economy talk less of Nigeria as a whole.

The GDP growth released by FG is emanating from foreign investors which have no direct impact on average Nigerians who are going through hell to feed their families. APC government is devilish in disguise, how can you charge ordinary students account stamp duty. It's a shame!

Have forgotten the sayings about motor vehicles, Mercedes Benz and others

The next uprising will start from the north because that part of Nigeria have for a long time used religion to subdued the fundamental right of youths in their region. This is the result we are getting today which have increased the level of insecurity in all part of Nigeria. Bandits, Fulani Herdsmen, Gunmen, Boko Haram and so on.. May God save Nigeria