When Shawn Strickland’s next fight was announced as the UFC’s #1 ranked middleweight, it turned heads.
Strickland (26-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) is booked against Abus Magomedov (25-4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) for the UFC title on July 1 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Strickland is ranked #7 by the UFC at 185 pounds, while Magomedov has only fought once in the octagon. So why did Strickland agree to fight an unrated opponent? for him Answer It was simple.
They said, ‘Shawn, you’re going to wait too long for a top 6+ guy to open up or we’ll pay you a lot of money to fight this guy’ so here we go, Strickland tweeted. “I just bought a new motorcycle and want another one… thinking of a sport bike if anyone has a hook?!?!”
Magomedov needed just 19 seconds to upset Dustin Stoltzfus in his UFC debut last September. He has not competed since but has seen two fights canceled against Gerald Merchart in February and Makhmud Muradov in March.
Strickland was last seen in action in January when he defeated Nasiruddin Imavov in a lightweight, welterweight bout for short at UFC Fight Night 217. The win snapped a two-fight losing skid, which came at the hands of former champion Alex Pereira and former title challenger Jared Cannonier.