Israel Adesanya vs Sean Strickland Preview & Picks – Adesanya To KO Strickland At UFC 293

Israel Adesanya is tipped to retain the middleweight title by KO/TKO.

Adesanya is the more accurate striker and also the more elusive when it comes to defending strikes.

Taking him down is not easy either, so we expected him to pick apart Sean Strickland and finish him.

Israel Adesanya is the reigning UFC middleweight champion with a professional record of 24-2 (16 KOs).

Adesanya has reigned over the 185lb division for all but a few months in the past five years.

He won the title for the first time in April 2019, beating Kelvin Gastelum by unanimous decision at UFC 236.

‘The Last Stylebender’ knocked out former champion Robert Whittaker in the second round of his first defence, before besting Yoel Romero over five rounds.

Adesanya then stopped Paul Costa via strikes in the second round, before dropping a decision when he challenged Jan Blachowicz for the light-heavyweight title.

A return to middleweight brought an immediate return to winning ways as he claimed unanimous decision wins over Marvin Vettori, Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier.

However, his next defence ended in failure, as he was knocked out in the final round of his middleweight title fight with long-time rival Alex Pereira.

Adesanya immediately avenged that loss though, knocking out Pereira in the second round in April to regain the title.

Sean Strickland is the #5 middleweight contender with a professional record of 27-5 (11 KOs, 4 Subs).

Strickland has gone 8-2 in his last 10 fights to earn himself a shot at the middleweight title.

He rebounded from a knockout loss to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos with a second round knockout of Nordine Taleb.

‘Tarzan’ then backed that up with a unanimous decision win against Jack Marshman, before knocking out Brendan Allen in the second round.

The wins kept coming from there and Strickland too his streak to six fights with unanimous deciison wins against Krzysztof Jotko and Uriah Hall, and a split decision victory over Jack Hermansson.

His run was brought to a halt in July 2022 though, as he was knocked out in 2:36 by Alex Pereira, who went on to win the middleweight title.

Strickland then dropped a split decision to Jared Cannonier to close out a disappointing year.

He has turned things around in 2023 though, beating Nassoudine Imavov by unanimous decision at light-heavyweight in January, before returning to 185lbs to knock out Abus Magomedov in July.