UFC on ESPN 48 Preview (Strickland vs. Magomedov)
The UFC will be hosting another hard-hitting event at the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday July 1st. The main event will be in the middleweight division between #7 Sean Strickland and Abus Magomedov.
Strickland is coming off an impressive and dominant unanimous decision victory over Nassourdine Imavov in a light heavyweight bout in January. Strickland jumped in on short notice and much to the surprise of many pundits, he put an end to his two fight losing streak against an opponent many thought was on the rise to a title shot.
The 32-year-old is 7-2 in his last nine fights and he explained why he took a fight against an unranked opponent. “If the money is right, I’ll fight anybody,” Strickland said. “I would like to fight f—kin’ ‘Izzy.’ I think Whittaker is gonna f—k Dricus up. I think we all know that.”
He continued, “I had no idea who the f*ck he was,” Strickland said. “So I’ve been hounding the UFC to fight, I even offered to do 205, but Mick (Maynard) didn’t want me to f*ck up the rankings because there are a lot of 205ers I’d f*ck up. So I had a conversation with Mick, and he pretty much offered me a couple of ranked guys. I said yes to them, they said no.
“So I had a choice: I either wait eight f*cking months or I f*cking fight. The money was right and here we are. I mean, we all fight for money. If the dollar is right, I will f*cking do it. We came to good terms and good pay, and here we are fighting Abus.”
Strickland continued to not spare words about champion Israel Adesanya and middleweight contenders. “It’s kind of embarrassing that Dricus gets a potential shot, but ‘Izzy’ the Chinese — true Chinese — they probably want to bring a real African back to the championship. Can you guys believe that s—t? Is that real when he says look at the color of my skin? Did that really happen? Is that real? This f—king clown, this f—king loser, bro. They need to revoke your black card, bro. I don’t even look at you like a black man. I look at you like the f—king Chinese.”
Despite his title hopes, Strickland as usual took a fun-loving approach to commenting on his current opponent. “This is a fun fight, man,” Strickland said of him vs. Adesanya. “Like, you take Abus. Who the f—k is Abus? Let’s just say Abus knocks me the f—k out and he becomes the champion. Who the f—k is Abus? Do you really want Abus as a champion contender? Does that guy even speak english? A little bit? Well, there we go. I don’t know, man. I barely speak f—king english. Man can’t fight during f—king Ramadan and s—t.”
“I deserve a shot,” he said. “Let’s make it happen. Worst case scenario, me and ‘Izzy’ are gonna fight in the f—king parking lot because that s—t needs to happen.”
The last time Strickland looked into the future at a potential title shot with Adesanya, he was finished badly by Alex Pereira at UFC 276. Strickland has become somewhat of a fan favorite due to his brash trash talk and attempts at being humorous on the mic. So if he can manage to get by Saturday’s fight and follow that with a win, the build up to a fight between he and whoever is champion will be entertaining, especially if it still Adesanya.
Magomedov is coming off a brutal first round TKO victory over Dustin Stoltfzus last September. The win was his eighth in his last 10 fights and it marked a highly successful UFC debut for him.
The 32-year-old did not back down from giving his true thoughts on Strickland. "My advice for Strickland is he has to be quiet. He has to take care of himself, take care of his survival," Magomedov said. "If he wants to talk, we can talk after the fight. But in the fight, we have to fight. It's not a talk show, you know?”
A fight with Strickland is the kind of showcase Magomedov needs to solidify his position as a contender. Both he and Strickland represent “new blood” or a new challenge to the middleweight title so a convincing win could work wonders for either fighters title hopes.
The Rest of the Main Card:
Lightweight - #12 Damir Ismagulov vs. #15 Grant Dawson
Welterweight - Max Griffin vs. Michael Morales
Women’s Flyweight - Ariane Lipski vs. Melissa Gatto
Lightweight - Ismael Bonfim vs. Benot Saint-Dennis
Middleweight - Nursulton Ruziboev vs. Brunno Ferreria
ESPN + Prelims:
Welterweight - Kevin Lee vs. Rinat Fakhretdin
Featherweight. - Joanderson Brito vs. Westin Wilson
Women’s Featherweight - #6 Yana Santos vs. #9 Karol Rosa
Lightweight - Guram Kutateladze vs. Elves Brenner
Women’s Flyweight. - Ivana Petrovic vs. Luana Carolina
Heavyweight - #14 Alexander Romanov vs. #15 Blagoy Ivanov
