Can the UFC jumpstart the upper tier of its sputtering middleweight division? That’s the overarching question at play this Saturday as streaking grappler Anthony Hernandez encounters his most notable test yet in former champion and persistent headache — both in and outside the Octagon — Sean Strickland.
Middleweight’s current titleholder, Khamzat Chimaev, has fought only once each of the last three years. And the four champions prior — Dricus Du Plessis, Strickland, Israel Adesanya, and Robert Whittaker — fought just five times combined in 2025.
Reiner de Ridder, the former ONE double champion, fought five times on his own in an 11-month span after entering the UFC in November 2024, doing everything in his power to enter that upper echelon. For him and a rising crop of emerging 185-pound challengers — Hernandez, Caio Borralho, Joe Pyfer — it’s been difficult to find name brand opponents to prove themselves against.
Take Hernandez, who’s 8-0 since 2021 with a 75 per cent finish rate. With relentless forward pressure, effective grappling, and a suite of chokes from various positions, he possesses an array of techniques to beat you regardless of where a fight goes. Which is likely why middleweights with something to lose haven’t been lining up to defend their position against him. But like de Ridder, Hernandez has been holding up his end of the activity bargain.
The 32-year-old fought twice in both 2024 and 2025, accepting whichever names were put before him both up and down the top-15 rankings. Picking up three performance bonuses along the way, he finished a powerful brawler (Roman Dolidze), out-grappled a BJJ black belt (Brendan Allen), overwhelmed an explosive chaos machine (Michel Pereira), and neutralized a technical kickboxer (Roman Kopylov).
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Only two things have gotten in Hernandez’s way. Injuries — a torn ligament in his hand kept him from a 2024 booking with Dolidze and an undisclosed issue forced his withdrawal from an October clash with de Ridder. And middleweights with the most to lose not wanting to fight him.
Save for Strikland. For all of the 34-year-old’s abrasive, reaction-seeking antics outside the cage, which can give his fights a certain sideshow feel, he’s still UFC’s No. 3 ranked middleweight contender — Hernandez is No. 4 — with as decorated a resume as anyone at 185 pounds.
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Former middleweight champion Sean Strickland faces Anthony Hernandez as the UFC returns to Houston. Watch UFC Fight Night action Saturday, Feb. 21 on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet+ with coverage beginning at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT.
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He holds a five-round, unanimous decision victory over No. 2-ranked Nassourdine Imavov — albeit, at 205 pounds as a five-days-notice injury replacement — who’s gone 5-0-1 since against top competition. Three of Strickland’s last four fights have headlined pay-per-view cards with titles on the line. If you knew him for only his Tapology page and not the constant drama swirling around him, you’d see him as a defining middleweight of the last three years.
Of course, it’s impossible to separate Strickland the fighter from Strickland the rabble-rouser. And it feels like eons ago that he upset Adesanya as a +470 underdog to become a most unlikely champion. That his title reign lasted only four months before du Plessis snatched it from him feels about right.
Strickland never seemed comfortable carrying himself as a champion. He brawled in the stands at a UFC event. He used media availabilities to broadcast a crude, toxic worldview. He seemingly did everything in his power to imperil himself and see how far he could push the boundaries within which UFC would let him continue to hold a title.
But not even Strickland could find that limit. His commotion convoy kept rolling down the highway, and even after he lost the belt, it took only a split decision victory over Paulo Costa after a plodding, uneventful five rounds to catapult Strickland back into a championship rematch with Du Plessis, who trounced him even more thoroughly than the first time.
Strickland contends that’s a fight he should have withdrawn from due to what he described as a broken shoulder suffered in a motorcycle accident during camp. But you can imagine making the decision he did while weighing the foolishness of the injury, the rarity of title shots, and the UFC’s proclivity to punish those who jeopardize big fights (hello, Arman Tsarukyan).
Yet what he certainly shouldn’t have decided to do was rush the cage in flip flops at a regional show last June, throwing punches at a teammate’s opponent who’d taunted him following a victory. That bit of madness earned Strickland a six-month suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, eliminating any chance of a bounce-back booking in late 2025.
Perhaps the only person who would support the choice was Hernandez, who might as well have been behind Strickland pushing him up the steps. It was the twist of fate necessary to get him a name brand booking to climb within reach of a shot against Chimaev at a time when Adesanya, Du Plessis, Imavov, and Whittaker are either unavailable or unmotivated to fight him.
Which isn’t to suggest Strickland as merely a stepping stone. Sure, Hernandez enters ranging from a -250 to -325 favourite, which implies a win probability of around 75 per cent. But Strickland’s tight defence and range striking present a fascinating, something-has-to-give contrast to Hernandez’s pressure and phone-booth exchanges.
Both fighters like to move forward. Both seek to push pace. Both want to control where and how the fight is waged, leveraging volume and grit to test their opponent’s mental toughness and durability.
Ultimately, it’s a question of who can keep the fight in their world. If there’s space between them, Strickland’s in control. If they’re clinched up along the fence, Hernandez has the advantage. The only outcome that feels likely is a gruelling, miserable five rounds as two stubborn mules impose will upon one another.
It’ll be a grind. And Hernandez couldn’t be happier to be in it.
