Sean Strickland has already hit the high-water mark of his MMA career, according to a former foe who clashed with him in the UFC. The combatant in question is Krzysztof Jotko, who fell short to Strickland by way of unanimous decision during their UFC Fight Night bout in May 2021.
Jotko recently won the Tipsport Gamechanger tournament and has been carving out a strong path within the European MMA powerhouse, Oktagon MMA. When asked for his thoughts on Strickland’s upcoming fight with Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez at UFC Houston, Krzysztof Jotko said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, I think that Anthony Hernandez, he’s gone very good up. He have a very good jiu-jitsu and very good like submission. I think Strickland is behind his big fights. You know, he have his big fights. He fight on the belt. He was a champion and maybe there’s going to be difficult fight for him. But he’s also very good, very good wrestler and he can probably defend the takedown and boxing the guy, you know.”
Sean Strickland completes near 50 pound weight cut for UFC Houston main event
Sean Strickland has hit the scales for his clash with Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez on Saturday, but the road was far from smooth leading to this moment for the former UFC middleweight champion. Strickland has gone on record to say that the weight-cutting process is tougher than the actual fight for him, and he had to shed 45 pounds to hit the contracted weight limit. Strickland mentioned getting up to over 230 pounds during his time on the sidelines, but has obviously shored things up in this return to action.
After falling short in his bid for middleweight gold against Dricus du Plessis last February, Strickland returns from his suspension and aims to beat a surging, ranked contender to get back in that championship mix. That kind of focus seemed to reflect in Strickland hitting that championship mark, right at 185 pounds, while Hernandez came in at 186 pounds for this consequential contest in the middleweight hierarchy moving forward in 2026.