Sean Strickland’s next fight will be against Abus Magomedov in the main event of UFC Fight Night 225 on June 3rd in Las Vegas.
It’s a somewhat surprising match-up given that Strickland is ranked No.7 in the middleweight division, while Magomedov is currently unranked and has only had one fight in the promotion so far.
That being said, the 32-year-old Magomedov did make a big impression in his UFC debut last September when he TKO’d Dustin Stoltzfus with a front kick and follow-up punches in just 19 seconds, extending his career record to 25-4-1 in the process.
As for Strickland, he started off last year strongly with a win over Jack Hermansson, which was his sixth in a row at the time, but his title hopes then unravelled after suffering a KO loss to future champ Alex Pereira and then losing out by split-decision to Jared Cannonier.
However, the 32-year-old Strickland has since rebounded with a unanimous decision victory over Nassourdine Imavov, and as such it was expected that he’d be going up against a top-10 ranked opponent next.
Still, Strickland will get main event honors alongside Magomedov on a UFC Fight Night 225 card that currently has no other fights attached to it at this stage.