In the main event of UFC Houston tomorrow night, we are going to see a potential title eliminator in the middleweight division. Former champion Sean Strickland (29-7) will take on the surging top contender Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez (15-2, 1 NC).
Right now, there’s not a guarantee on who will get the next middleweight title fight against Khamzat Chimaev. With a major performance tomorrow night, Sean Strickland or Anthony Hernandez can take that shot away from top contender Nassourdine Imavov.
Starting with the former champion, he’s looking to bounce back after his last fight. The last time we saw Strickland was just over a year ago when he lost to former champion Dricus Du Plessis. Strickland wasn’t 100% for that fight and he put on one of the worst performances of his career. Strickland is out to prove he’s still worthy of being a UFC champion.
To do that, he’s going to have to stop the momentum of “Fluffy” Hernandez. Hernandez got off to a really bad start inside the octagon at 1-2 after being a champion in LFA. However, since then he’s won eight in a row and he looks like a monster at 185. Because of his latest performances, he enters as a big betting favorite tomorrow night.
UFC Houston Prediction
Sean Strickland has lost four times at 185 with one of those losses being a really bad decision loss to Jared Cannonier. You could make the argument that Strickland won that fight and the first fight against Dricus Du Plessis where he lost the UFC middleweight title.
The two clear losses he’s had at 185 were to Alex Pereira and the second DDP fight. Outside of that, he’s been sensational. He’s defeated Israel Adesanya and top contender Nassourdine Imavov. However, I think he’s going to have a lot of trouble at UFC Houston.
Sean Strickland fights really well when he’s the one moving forward. He’s incredibly defensively sound on the feet, but his style really favors being able to move forward, defend well, and fire crisp straight shots back. When he’s moving backwards, he struggles.
Anthony Hernandez is not going to be moving backwards. Unless he gets hurt, Hernandez is going to come forward with constant pressure. I’m actually really curious to see the grappling in this matchup because Strickland has extremely underrated grappling and we know Hernandez is a sensational grappler.
I think this is going to be a war of attrition and with what I’ve seen lately, I can’t pick against Anthony Hernandez in that type of fight. I expect this fight to go all five rounds and I expect Fluffy to get his hand raised at UFC Houston.
Prediction: Anthony Hernandez by Decision
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