Uriah Hall and Sean Strickland face off on Saturday in a middleweight bout for the main event of UFC on ESPN 28 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Hall is currently ranked 8th in the division while Strickland is ranked 11th.
Uriah “PrimeTime” Hall comes into this fight with an 18-9 record overall and coming into this one he has won four fights in a row. Hall’s last fight came against Chris Weidman in April of 2021 and it was 17 seconds into that fight that Hall was able to win the fight by knockout. Hall’s last loss came against Paulo Costa in July of 2018. Hall is averaging 3.34 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 3.54 significant strikes per minute. Hall is averaging 0.67 successful takedowns every 15 minutes but he is only successful on 38 percent of his takedown attempts. Hall also stops 69 percent of his opponents' takedown attempts. Hall has knockout power, and in this one, he is going to try and hunt that knockout early.
On the other side of this matchup is Sean Strickland who comes into this fight with a 23-3 record overall and he has won four fights in a row. Strickland’s last fight was against Krzysztof Jotko in May of 2021 and that was a fight he won by unanimous decision. Strickland is averaging 5.14 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 3.64 significant strikes per minute. Strickland is averaging 1.14 takedowns every 15 minutes, and he is successful 60 percent of the time. Strickland is also stopping 82 percent of his opponents' takedown attempts. Strickland is a knockout artist, but he also can grind out fights, as he did in the last fight.
These two fighters are pretty even, and I will take my chances with the underdog. Hall can finish a fight at any time, and he is going to find success in this one. Look for Hall to pull off the big upset in this one.
AUTHOR: Shane Mickle
Mitch's Take...
