Hernandez hoped to make a strong case for the No. 1 contender in the middleweight division. Instead, it was Sean Strickland making a statement. He scored the TKO finish in the third round after hitting “Fluffy” with a knee to the body, followed by punches before the referee stopped the fight.
While competing at UFC Houston, Hernandez won eight bouts in a row. His winning streak may be broken, but ‘Fluffy’ insists he will continue and try to make adjustments. Hernandez turned the Strickland loss on his own Instagram account (h/t MMAfighting).
“First of all, thank you to everyone who came,” Hernandez said. “Showing me a lot of love, that was fucking amazing. Players are breaking up. I mean, I was on an eight-fight win streak. It felt like everything was going smoothly until I got hit by a damn body shot. Shit happens. Part of the game. It took six years for someone to finally beat me. I’ll be back.”
During his eight-fight winning streak, Hernandez defeated the likes of Roman Dolidze, Brendan Allen, Michel Pereira and Roman Kopylov, to name a few. He rose to become the No. 4 ranked UFC middleweight. Whether he keeps that spot or drops at least one remains to be seen.
While Hernandez will try to assess what went wrong, Strickland will push for a middleweight title shot against Khamzat Chimaev. Whether Strickland will get his wish remains to be seen, but many agree this is the biggest fight that can happen at middleweight. BJPenn.com will keep you updated with the latest updates on the middleweight title picture.
If you were a UFC matchmaker, who would you book Anthony Hernandez to fight next? Tell us in the comments below.
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