A breakdown of Sean Strickland vs Anthony Hernandez

 Anthony Hernandez vs Sean Strickland is a well-anticipated fight in the middleweight division, with two high-output pressure fighters clashing in Houston, Texas. Hernandez has made a name for himself after some dominant recent performances, drowning his opponents with relentless wall wrestling, driving them to near exhaustion with his riding and mat returns. Strickland is currently looking to redeem himself for his losses to former champ Dricus Du Plessis, hoping to remind fans what made him champion material in the first place.

Sean Strickland, despite dominating one of the most decorated strikers in ufc history in Israel Adesanya, is still reduced to “just a jab and a teep”. While on the surface it is true that Strickland’s striking is quite limited, his pressuring game is a bit more complex, using a few offensive tools to great success along with a weird yet also interesting guard. 

The jab makes up the bulk of Strickland’s game. It requires little commitment for him, but it works extremely well as a pressuring tool, allowing him to throw a lot of volume at an opponent. Strickland will start tapping at his opponent with his lead hand, looking to either draw a reaction or get his opponent to cover up. Once he’s marked his opponent with the jab, he can then unload a right hand or a kick, meaning that he seldom gets countered as his opponents are usually in position to strike when he commits to a more heavy strike. Strickland can choose how much power he puts into his jab, choosing not to shift his weight and keeping himself in good position to block or dodge shots coming back at him. The opponent being left in the dark as to whether Strickland is going to pop them with something serious to just touch their guard makes it hard to know how to react, the variation in power and tempo making timing a right hand or slip over the jab a lot more difficult. Strickland knows this and will essentially stroll into range behind a wall of jabs, ready to put some string behind it the second his opponent stops respecting it as a threat. Strickland can just saunter his opponent to the cage boundary if they don’t give a reaction to the threat, which is what makes his style so awkward to deal with.

If they try to come back swinging the jab will also double up as a post, allowing Strickland to frame on their shoulder and stuffing any attempt to move into “swang and bang range”, leaving plenty of distance for Strickland to comfortably block any strikes that come his way. 

Hernandez will likely struggle with this, as his usual reaction to getting punched is to either duck into a clinch or back up, the first being difficult if Strickland is able to maintain range and the latter playing further into Strickland’s game. This could lead to Hernandez trying to force himself into range, potentially walking right onto Strickland’s teeps, which he uses to great effect when people try and force themselves back onto the front foot. Dricus Du Plessis had a lot of success getting around the teep by parrying it and then keeping up front foot pressure, preventing Strickland from planting his feet from distance and using it, but it is uncertain whether Hernandez has the striking ability, the punch power or the chin to replicate this.

Sean Strickland’s difficulty as a matchup comes from his extremely weird guard. It can only be described as the bastard child of Floyd Mayweather’s “Philly Shell”, a long guard and Wing Tsung handfighting. Strickland will find a way to bat away, deflect, or roll most of the shots that come at him, largely because his guard is almost entirely defensive. This means that you will never see him rock anyone with a counter, but you won’t see him get caught off balance. His low commitment offence and complete devotion to being defensive when strikes come at him makes him extremely awkward to hit, as he offers very little to work with when it comes to finding openings to hit him.

Strickland is obviously not anywhere near the same level as Floyd Mayweather when it comes to his defence, but he does share a lot of his tactics, as much as boxing fans may scoff watching him. By keeping his lead arm covering his body and his shoulder covering his chin, Strickland drastically limits the amount of targets that he presents, forcing opponents to attack his head which he can see coming and then subsequently avoid. Strickland can also shoulder roll, getting behind the lump of bone in his arm and pull back from shots, his refusal to counter off of it meaning that he can focus entirely on getting himself out of danger. Again, like Mayweather, Strickland can roll into a clinch, preventing his opponent from landing any meaningful offence from such a short range, a tactic he used especially effectively against middleweight contender Nassourdine Imavov. This may be risky against Hernandez though, as he would be putting himself into a clinch, practically giving Hernandez exactly what he is looking for. 

Strickland’s handfighting also plays a major role in his defence. If he can see a shot coming he will often bring his arms out to intercept, sometimes even committing both hands to blocking a single punch. This will involve cross blocking kung fu style and moving his hands upwards, directing the path of the punch upwards. While this seems extremely stupid it often throws his opponent way out of position, with their force carrying upwards as opposed to forwards, halting any momentum they have and preventing extended combinations. Hernandez’s jab and clinch tactics may be halted if he can’t crash in as his opponent attempts to throw back hard, especially if his weight is thrown off by an upwards parry. Strickland’s strangle commitment to two-on-one shots even works offensively, sometimes reaching out and grabbing the lead hand of an opponent with both of his. This not only opens up the path of the teep but also severely limits the opponent’s offensive options, too short for kicking range and only offering an overly telegraphed rear hand. Israel Adesanya attempted to punish Strickland with said rear hand, and it was potentially the most telegraphed shot of his career, allowing Strickland to slip it and clatter him with his own punches. While Strickland’s hand fighting is far from textbook, it is extremely awkward to deal with and makes his game all the more difficult. Hernandez will likely have a lot of trouble dealing with these features of Strickland’s striking. 

Sean Strickland offers a lot of questions on the feet, but that is not where Anthony Hernandez thrives. If he can get past the awkward striking and put Strickland down, it could be a long night for him, for Strickland’s primary method of getting to his feet is the walk, which is exactly what Hernandez wants.

The invention of the wall walk is one of the greatest innovations in mixed martial arts. Attempting to stand up with someone on top of you is a very difficult task, meaning that, for a while, wrestling dominated mixed martial arts, as good wrestlers would just hold opponents on the ground after the first takedown they got. Eventually, fighters realised that, while the cage wall gave a lot of problems when it came to fighting off your back, it works amazingly as a frame to get back to your feet. Fighters can put their weight onto the wall and push of of it to drive onto their feet, the boundary of the fence also provided protection from back takes as it covers the whole side of the body. After fighters like Chuck Liddell began to have success with the technique, it was not long until almost every fighter was using the wall walk as a method of getting back up. 

Anthony Hernandez is not an olympic caliber wrestler nor an NCAA standout. He is not an ADCC champion or even a jiu-jitsu black belt. Hernandez knows that he cannot hold anyone down forever, but he will try to punish his opponents as hard as he can for trying to stand up. Hernandez will put all of his weight on you and try to take away as many bases as he can, trying to force his opponents to essentially pistol squat him if they want to stand up. He tends to incorporate a lot of college wrestling rides, grabbing wrists and ankles to prevent them from being posted on the floor.

He has adapted these collegiate wrestling techniques especially well for MMA. Hernandez often uses the half nelson to put his weight on the back of an opponent’s neck, forcing them to carry a much heavier load if they wish to stand up. Hernandez has also managed to excellently adapt the cradle to counter the wall walk, taking advantage of when his opponent’s knee comes close to their head in order to snatch it up, using the cradle to drag his opponents back down to the mat and forcing them to stand up again. As a bonus, a lot of these riding positions give openings for kneeing the body, helping to tire out his opponent to an even greater extent. He can then keep rinsing and repeating these techniques to create exhausting cycles of grappling offence.

Hernandez is very willing to give up “good jiu jitsu” positioning, foregoing opportunities at positions such as back mount, and instead choosing weight-bearing positions. He will often forgo the opportunity to jump hooks or pass the guard, provided he is in good position to keep control and strike. Using “inferior” controlling positions means that he cannot control as easily, but also means that he is able to bail on them to the next position if necessary, preventing an easy getup or escape from an especially explosive or driven man on bottom. His submission game is an extension of this philosophy; Hernandez’s signature “seated kata gatame” or “arm across guillotine” is easily accessible from most of his rides, only requiring him to slide down to the head when required. This submission, like his positional game, is very low commitment, giving the option to retreat back to turtle or even take the opponent’s back if they start to escape the choke. This low commitment grappling style provides a fluidity to Hernandez’s game that is suffocating to deal with, allowing him to switch positions the second you get past his previous move.

Many watch Hernandez’s performance against other middleweights and assume he will simply do the same to Strickland if he can get him on the ground, but it must be noted that Strickland is a very adept grappler himself. His ability to heist his hips when taken down will make it more difficult for Hernandez to stop the initial wall walk, his ability to climb the fence without exposing his back also provide potential roadblocks. Against former middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, Strickland was also able to demonstrate a solid switch with his back to the fence, something that may give Hernandez issues if he is insistent on holding him down.

Sean Strickland vs Anthony Hernandez offers a clash between two very interesting styles. Ultimately this will be a test to where both fighters stand in the division. Is Strickland still able to hang with other contenders? Will Hernandez be able to keep up his dominant performances against high levels of competition? Hopefully we will see some good stuff and it won’t just be five rounds of the occasional jab and clinching against the fence (God forbid).