Sean's Strickland biggest weaknesses

[meast]

I'm not gonna cry about the results, but I scored both figths to Sean, against Cannonier and against Dricus.
But anyway, I think he have 4 big problems in his figth style.

1 - He's a pointstyle fighter, unfortunately he Ins't a knockout artist and probably will never be.
Counting with the judges is just bad, you've never know how they are scoring.

2 - Lack of diversity in his strikes.
Sean's straight punches are top tier, and it open a lot of paths to him, and feel like he don't exploit them.
I think some Hooks and Uppercuts could be very beneficial to him.

3 - Lack of urgency.
Strickland have his pace, and doesn't change it, no matter how the figth was going, he should put more aggression sometime.

4 - parrying punches.
OK, I know its ankward saying that one of his best things is a weakness, but if you watch.his figths in 0.5 you probably will agree with me.
He blocks a lot of punches, but live I think you couldn't distinguish what really lands and what he have parryed.
And He's a point style fighter, sometimes the judge can count a blocked punch as effective strike and I can't blame them, its really hard to judge such a thing live.

I think he can have another shot winning 1 or 2 figths, let's see if he can fulfill those holes in his game.

What'd you think about ?

In the 5th rd he definitely increased his pace and aggression, if he had done the same in the 4th he would have won the fight

 

[spinitch]

it was a very close fight, where mistakes can be dangerous. The parry roll might lessen impacts so does not get rocked but could be viewed as strikes landing and control by judges. Sean was only a good punch or so away from winning so what he does works. Just DDP went a little more aggressive and swayed judges.

 

[jeff7b9]

His defense style can lead people to think his opponents are landing when the shots are falling a just a smidge short or being blocked/rolled.

Happened BIG TIME this weekend.

 

[Skarsgard]

It's the same way that Leonard Garcia and Diego used to win fights. Dricus threw aggressively, and convinced the judges he did something of consequence. Sean should know by now that he needs to increase his output in the later rounds. DDP had started to fade and Sean kept letting him off the hook.

 

[LostMyBlackBelt]

Sean is more emotional than any woman. He should not be allowed to vote.

 

[Normot]

As mighty mouse said, why not use mixed martial arts in a martial arts fight? Throw a few takedown in dawg. It's gayer to win a point fighting contest than to shoot a double. Change my mind.

 

[mraa1]

I kind of disagree with number 4. I do see what you are saying but Strickland tends to lean back and/or shuffle away when he parries and blocks strikes which makes it more obvious to see when things don't connect cleanly. For example, in rd 1 I think I saw only one good body kick land from DDP. The rest of his strikes were fairly obviously blocked and avoided

 

[chardog]

He has no power, that's his #1 problem. He hit Dricus with over 9000 punches the other night and didn't wobble him once

sean threw some bomb overhands and didnt phase dricus..... however dricus' head tells another story. His head did flop around in the fight, so it's gotta be a combination of a really stellar chin on dricus and sub par punching from sean.

 

[marvinparsons]

There is nothing "top-tier" about Strickland's striking.

His right hand is an absolute joke, he turns his elbow over and actually strikes with his thumb, and inside of his fist, rather than straight across the knuckles. A right cross your elbow should be out in your palm down. When Strickland throws rights they are looping in his thumb is pointed at the floor. Wonky, and lame AF, IMO.

Also, even his jab isn't that big of a deal. Go rewatch Round 4 and 5. His jab is pushed-out, slow AF, almost pawing.

When he throws his joke of a right hand, he's looking at the floor.

It was actually laughable, at the very end, because both guys were throwing sloppy, telegraphed looping right hands, both "hiding their heads" and looking at the floor, with both missing badly. It was almost a comedy watching the very end.

I do agree Sean has got a pretty good defense, but his striking is mediocre, slow and predictable.

But his overhand rights, while looking at the floor, are bottom-level amateurish, and nowhere near the realm of "top-tier."

I don't think you can judge his technique based solely on his punches at minute 24:30 of a fight. The fight wasn't a barn burner, but it was fairly high tempo so he was obviously exhausted by that point.

 

[TrueBias]

Likely why I'll never like him.

 

[IronGolem007]

I don't think you can judge his technique based solely on his punches at minute 24:30 of a fight. The fight wasn't a barn burner, but it was fairly high tempo so he was obviously exhausted by that point.

I think I can judge his punches at the end of the fight.

I've been watching fighters since 1974, and I've seen of thousands of better efforts, and better fighters, who have 10 times the energy, snap, and execution "after 25 minutes" ...

This was bottom-dwelling bullishit in my opinion

 

[PEDRO IVO RUSSO MIRANDA]

I kind of disagree with number 4. I do see what you are saying but Strickland tends to lean back and/or shuffle away when he parries and blocks strikes which makes it more obvious to see when things don't connect cleanly. For example, in rd 1 I think I saw only one good body kick land from DDP. The rest of his strikes were fairly obviously blocked and avoided

Yeah, he blocked almost everything, but I fell like the judges count that blocked punches as effective strikes.
I dont remember exactly what number they showed in 1st round, but was like 19 Sean and 13 Dricus, and I'm sure dricus land much less than that.
Im not criticizing Sean skill, just saying thay style can be hard to judge, and judges will still giving L's to him when it should be W's .

 

[Tapatio]

No power is his biggest problem

 

[mraa1]

Yeah, he blocked almost everything, but I fell like the judges count that blocked punches as effective strikes.
I dont remember exactly what number they showed in 1st round, but was like 19 Sean and 13 Dricus, and I'm sure dricus land much less than that.
Im not criticizing Sean skill, just saying thay style can be hard to judge, and judges will still giving L's to him when it should be W's .

Yeah that's ridiculous imo, I didn't see anything really connect cleanly on Strickland except that body kick near the end, but if those were the strike counts then it lends more creedence to what TS is saying which is really unfortunate because Sean's defense is crazy good even if it ain't exactly pretty.