Israel Adesanya vs Strickland: 3 mistakes that made Izzy lose title at UFC 293

From the start of the fight, Here are the mistakes Adesanya made against Strickland that cost him.

Early on Sunday, September 10, 2023, in Sydney, Australia, in the main event of UFC 293, Sean Strickland submitted and nearly stopped Israel Adesanya in the first round of their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title encounter.

Strickland defeated Adesanya through unanimous decision after pulling off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

Strickland won 49-46 on all cards according to the judge to crown a dominant performance.

Here 3 mistakes Adesanya made in the loss to Strickland

Adesanya's loss came as a shock to the MMA world as he rose to the top of the trends on social media.

Adesanya, 'The Last Stylebender' failed to defend the title against Strickland and here are three mistakes he made in the fight.

1 Adesanya was unable to establish his jab

Adesanya's grappling and jiu-jitsu skills are well known but it is his striking ability that has made him successful in the octagon.

To start the fight, it was expected that Adesanya would capitalize on his reach and height advantage against Strickland.

Those two weapons failed as Adesanya was unable to establish the jab against a shorter Strickland.

The fear of Adesanya's power is the beginning of his dominance in the octagon and being unable to find his range early in the fight was a terrible mistake.

2 Adesanya's lack of aggression against Strickland

Strickland is a decent middleweight who is now the champion of the division.

However, there is a reason many people expected Adesanya to have an easy night against Strickland.

The American used to compete in the Welterweight division before moving up to the middleweight division.

Strickland, who lost a unanimous decision fight against American professional mixed martial artist of Nigerian descent Kamaru Usman back in 2017 was the aggressor against Adesanya.

Adesanya deciding to fight on the back foot was a mistake as it played into the strengths of Strickland.

It might have been a good tactic to reclaim the title from Brazilian Alex Pereira earlier this year but forced him into difficult positions in the octagon.

Also, Adesanya on the back foot meant he spent a lot of energy changing positions to reset an onrushing Strickland who continued to gain confidence round after round.

3 Adesanya should have targeted the body more

Adesanya has devastating knockout power as we have seen over the course of his career from kickboxing to mixed martial arts.

Now 34 years old, Adesanya has enough experience and even told his coach he was unable to establish his jab.

Headhunting is always the primary objective but an onrushing Strickland was wide open in his body and there to be hit.

No fighter wants to waste punches but when the jab is not working and the opponent is walking you down, the expectation is that body blows would slow his tempo.

Although his hands could not connect effectively, Adesanya had success with his legs but for some reason opted for the highlight target knockout.

A few body blows would have served as a deterrent to Strickland and could eventually have won Adesanya some rounds instead of backpedaling for the majority of the fight.

Adesanya is known to take a detailed assessment of each of his fights on the Stylebender YouTube channel.

It is expected after his short speech at the post-fight press conference he give a detailed breakdown of how to improve should the UFC order an immediate rematch.

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