This is a fantastic fight and exactly what a fight night headliner should be. 2 guys at the top of the division working their way either back to the title or into their first title shot. But just because it is a great matchup, doesn't mean it will be a great fight. Sean Strickland as we know does a better job promoting than performing. He gets in the cage and curries around while trying to land 1,000 jabs. My brain is screaming that Sean Strickland wins here. The level of competition is lightyears apart, he is a former world champion, he beat Nassourdine who likely gets the next title shot. at 185lbs Sean has only lost to world champions Alex Pereira and DDP (not counting Cannonier as that was a robbery). But when I rewatched the second DDP fight, the issue for Sean was the relentless forward pressure and thats exactly how Hernandez fights. He is not the athlete DDP is, he doesn't have the power DDP does, he he moves forward endlessly and never stops. Fluffy is going to be the pick here because Sean backing up doesn't fight as well as Sean moving forward, but likely no bets.
Sean Strickland
Sean Strickland is a blue collar striker who says everything that pops into his head and is a bit unstable outside of the cage. He is however very put together inside of it. Style wise he walks forward and throws a ton of punches. He isn't particularly powerful or particularly fast but he has volume at almost 6 significant strikes a minute and fantastic takedown defense at 76%. He is a durable guy with a meat and potatoes gameplan. He is coming off the decision loss to DDP where the forward pressure was a problem.
Anthony Hernandez
Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez is a very good grappler who is averaging more than 6 takedowns per 15 minutes. He has solid wrestling with real entries, he's a BJJ blackbelt and although he is willing to strike, that is not his path to victory. He has incredible cardio and has put together an 8 fight win streak. He is coming off the dominant win over Roman Dolidze where he tripled the strikes and had 9 takedowns before the submission.
