Mark Jacobs 
Coming off the first back-to-back losses of his career, Sean Strickland stepped in as a late replacement against Nassourdine Imavov and finally righted the ship Saturday capturing a unanimous decision in the light heavyweight main event of UFC Fight Night 217 in Las Vegas.
Nassourdine started the first round looking to take advantage of a height and reach advantage using his jab and left hook from the outside. But Strickland, fighting in a quick turnaround from last month’s Fight Night 216 loss to Jared Cannonier, showed a bit more versatility this time. Pressing the pace a touch more than normal, he scored a nice takedown off a trip in the second round and worked the clinch well keeping Nassourdine penned up against the fence.
Strickland kept the pattern up over the last half of the fight, continually coming forward behind a stiff left-right combination and controlling the clinches. For his part, Nassourdine seemed content to accept his opponent’s pace boxing when Strickland wanted to bang and allowing himself to be controlled against the fence when Strickland chose to slow things down. He tried to fight out of the clinches with some hard elbows in the fifth round but it was too little too late as Strickland earned the decision.
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