Be honest, who saw this one coming?

Last September in the UFC 293 main event, Sean Strickland was drafted in as the latest challenger to take on the reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya — a fighter who, until then, had been defeated just once at 185-pounds (which he swiftly gained revenge for). Strickland’s presence in the bout, reports said, was due to the presumptive top contender, Dricus du Plessis, being unable to make the September date, just months after scoring a TKO win against former champion Robert Whittaer.

But what followed across those five rounds in Sydney, Australia was one of the most impressive and prolonged performances in a UFC title fight as Strickland dropped Adesanya in the first and rarely took his foot off the gas for the remainder of the bout.

Ahead of Strickland’s first title defence against Du Plessis at UFC 297 later this month, you can relive his win against Adesanya in the embedded video player below.

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