MMA
Sean Strickland pummels Abus Magomedov with second-round TKO
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Sean Strickland had a shaky start to his UFC Fight Night card main event against Abus Magomedov.
But he more than made up for it in the second round, using his boxing to pummel Magomedov toward a big TKO at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday.
After getting poked in the eye during the bout's opening seconds and needing a timeout of nearly three minutes to recover, Strickland was blasted by body kicks and even taken down by an aggressive Magomedov.
But any momentum that Magomedov built during the first round came crashing down during the second as Strickland established his boxing and hurt Magomedov with several punches along the Octagon. Sensing he had Magomedov reeling, Strickland didn't let up and kept tagging away with a buffet of punches.
Within minutes, it was clear that Magomedov was gassed and retreating into survival mode. That's when Strickland began sitting on his shots until Magomedov crumbled to the mat, where the American greeted him and pummeled him more until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight.
"You want to go have a good first round and wrestle and do some little Peter Pan kicks? Bring it!" Strickland said in the Octagon following his victory, noting the stinging difference between the two rounds.
The middleweight added moments later: "Title, man. I want the title."
