Strickland dominates Hernandez in TKO win at UFC Fight Night

Sean Strickland said he was expecting a “miserable” fight with Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez on Saturday in Houston, but it turned out to be miserable for his opponent.

Strickland (30-7) earned his first knockout in more than two years, stopping Hernandez (15-3) with two strikes at 2:33 of the third round. It was Strickland’s first appearance since coming up short in a middleweight title bout against Dracus du Plessis in February 2025. That loss was widely considered one of the worst performances of Strickland’s career, but he more than made up for it on Saturday.

“I know that during the weigh-in, we exchanged some words,” Strickland said, referring to some heated arguments with Hernandez earlier in the week. “But after that fight, I feel like I’m part of Mexico. That was a fucking war, and I can’t thank Fluffy enough. He’s the definition of a man. To be honest, Fluffy is the man I want to be. He’s married, he’s a father, he’s hardworking — he’s a better man than I could ever hope to be.”

Strickland, 34, was ranked third in the UFC’s middleweight division before the bout, but was a heavy favorite in the betting to snap Hernandez’s streak of eight straight wins. He flipped that script from the opening round, working over Hernandez with his notorious striking and footwork.

The 17-year-old veteran expected that he would likely have to engage Hernandez in the fourth and fifth rounds of the back-and-forth fight to break him, but instead Strickland hit him with a knee to the body in the third round. He finished the match with punches to the body and a combination of uppercuts.

Although Strickland has said in recent interviews that he does not expect to challenge for the title anytime soon, given current champion Khamzat Chimaev’s history of inactivity, he called for seizing the opportunity anyway after Saturday’s win.

“If Chimaev comes off the bench, I’d like to get a piece,” Strickland said. “You never know with this guy, but that’s what I want.”

According to UFC stats, Strickland outscored Hernandez 92-62 in overall strikes and defended Hernandez’s lone takedown attempt. Strickland admitted, during his fight outside Las Vegas, that he fought du Plessis last year with a shoulder injury and then missed some time in the second half of 2025 due to a suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his role in a post-fight altercation at a local event in June.

The vacation might have served him well. His last finish before Saturday was a second-round knockout of Abu Magomedov in July 2023. For Hernandez, 32, it ended a winning streak dating back to February 2021. Hernandez lost to Kevin Holland in May 2020, before reeling off eight straight wins with six finishes.

“I thought it was going good, I thought it was (one round each), but maybe I was sloppy and got my knee stuck in the middle,” Hernandez said. “It’s okay. I’ll go back to the drawing board and I’ll get better. You saw what happened the last time I lost, I’ve gotten better.”