Sean channeled his best inner Floyd Mayweather against Izzy taking almost zero damage last night. I’m not calling Strickland the second coming of Floyd Mayweather but I don’t recall many (any?) using the phillly shell quite like like Sean does in MMA. It was fascinating to watch. It was a defensively brilliant performance by Sean last night, well deserved win.
This article was written before the fight:
No.5 ranked middleweight fighter Sean Strickland is only a couple hours away from the most important fight of his life. The unfiltered and controversial UFC personality will be fighting against middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for the title. While many believe Strickland has no likelihood of winning the bout, his peculiar stance might just give him a fighting chance.
Apart from his erratic personality, Strickland has boasted a very peculiar and unorthodox fighting stance. Strickland places both his hands closer to himself and stands upright in front of his opponent. Sean is able to defend himself using this stance, and has recently gone on to refine it.
Strickland has adopted the iconic fighting stance utilizing the Philly Shell. This style was used by some boxers including Floyd Mayweather which was a major factor in his impregnable defense. Opponents struggled to land clean punches on Mayweather and he was never knocked down throughout his career.
While Sean is yet to perfect the technique, he has won his two most recent fights using the Philly shell. His next opponent is one of the highest-rated strikers in UFC history and reigned over the middleweight division for quite some time. Yet, Sean might just be able to pull the upset utilizing this defense if he makes wise decisions inside the octagon.
Even though Strickland seems to be on a roll with his technique, he will have to bring everything to the table. Tarzan will have to use every skill set in his arsenal to stand a winning chance against Adesanya.
Breakdown from Sherdog from Sean’s last fight:
First thing to talk about is how hard Sean Strickland is to hit. He doesn’t look like he’s that deceptive but Strickland, with his Philly Shell/shoulder roll offensive approach often gets in the way of oncoming attacks and parries them away.
Part of the shoulder roll is parrying away strikes, not just rolling with punches like a lot of people think. We can see in our first diagram that Strickland, while he doesn’t get behind the lead shoulder quite like you’d like to see from someone in the Philly shell, does parry away strikes. Magomedov throws a huge right hand. Strickland sees it coming from a mile away and will look to stop that in it’s tracks by (2) framing off the bicep of the oncoming punch. After blocking this, the logical next punch is coming from the left. This means that either he will punch again or he will back off. He punches again, predictably. (3) The left hook comes flying in and Strickland backs up and swats away the strike with his right hand.
This is an example of blocking and parrying from the Philly shell, and it does demonstrate how Strickland makes life miserable for fighters who want to throw heavy. He has a good set of eyes on him and sees punches coming. He also gets in the way of these punches. Often they will land but not after some obstruction from Strickland, taking the wind out of a lot of the sails. Other times, they miss or he blocks them completely. Whiffing on punches like this zaps the gas tank and Strickland would reap these benefits for the rest of the fight.
It’s a fascinating style. I remember on knockout kings I always gave my fighter the Philly shell. I didn’t understand how to use it, it just sounded coolest.
I have no idea what the Philly shell is. Someone come educate your boy!
Look at the picture. You move your arms horizontal to block and use shoulder movement. It’s not a orthodox stance not is it southpaw. It’s the stance Mayweather used to great success.
@Barry_BondsMVP who are some others that used it, I’m drawing a blank but I’ve been drinking rum
Ummm. That guy from Philly…
Some guys that have used the Philly Shell effectively outside of Floyd are James Toney, Bernard Hopkins, Pernell Whitaker… Going further back you’d look at guys like Locche, Benton and Moore…
A key to this style is the ability to stay wide eyed when the punches start flying.
When you watch some classic Floyd he never winces, flinches, or closes his eyes even for a second.
Humour me as I’m not a boxing expert. Besides the stance, is this really”Philly shell”? Rather than keeping his arms tight to his body and rolling with things, Stricklands arms flail out to block things.
George Foreman also did this in his later years. Didn’t Ken Norton do this too? If you have a strong core you can get away with this.
I sometimes use a high guard when sparring because so few people do for the body. I sort of use teeps to protect my body. Haven’t been dropped by a body shot yet
Look at the pictures. It’s how the hands are held. It was made famous by fighters like George Benton, Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Floyd Mayweather.etc. It incorporates an in the pocket style with lots of shoulder rolling and in considered very defensive while still allowing someone to still be in range for their own offensive attack
