Despite the total pressure of Sean Strickland, the key to the American’s success in the title fight with Israel Adesanya was his defensive actions, said Javier Mendes, head coach of the American Kickboxing Academy, who led Russians Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev to UFC titles.
“First of all, the people Izzy fought in the past didn’t have as good a defense as Sean Strickland,” the American said in a video posted on his Youtube channel. “Look at Sean Strickland’s stats – he’s probably one of the few fighters who miss the least, in all divisions.”
“This guy very rarely misses because he’s masterful at getting away from punches. But I didn’t think that would work in a fight against a fighter as high level as Israel Adesanya. Izzy was the highest-ranked puncher Shawn had faced, and I didn’t expect his corner to pull it off, but obviously they did
As a reminder, the middleweight title fight, which headlined UFC 293 in Sydney last weekend, went the full distance and ended in a 49-46 three-round unanimous decision victory for Sean Strickland.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32616-trener-makhacheva-i-khabiba-nazval-prichinu-porazheniya-adesani.html?rand=19907
