UFC President Dana White announced a number of big time fights last night during an announcement on the promotion’s social media pages. One of the fights that was announced was a middleweight headliner between Sean Strickland (26-5) and Amus Magomedov (25-4-1).
The bout will headline a UFC Fight Night on July 1st. The promotion has had a helluva time finding fights for Abus Magomedov. When he enters the octagon to take on Strickland, he will be making just his second appearance and he’s unranked heading into the fight.
His lone UFC fight came against Dustin Stoltzfus back in September where he scored a first round knockout in under 20 seconds. That was his first fight in almost two years. Now, he goes right into the deep end of the division taking on a top ten contender.
UFC Fight Night
Not going to lie, I was a little surprised to see the booking. However, understanding Sean Strickland, it makes more sense. Sean Strickland is the one fighter in the middleweight division who literally does not care who he steps in the ring with.
He doesn’t play politics when it comes to the rankings, he just wants to fight. That attitude was on full display in his last fight when he took on Nassourdine Imavov with less than one week’s notice. He won that fight by decision which snapped a two-fight losing streak.
After starting his middleweight journey 5-0 with big wins along the way, Strickland suffered back-to-back losses to Alex Pereira and Jared Cannonier. Now, with a win backing him, he will look to turn away Magomedov and get his second win in a row.