Sean Strickland KOs Anthony Hernandez in UFC Houston Main Event, Targets Khamzat Chimaev
sean strickland returned to the Octagon with a third-round stoppage that reshuffled the 185-pound picture, and he made his intentions clear toward the division’s unbeaten champion. The finish matters now because it ended Anthony Hernandez’s eight-fight winning streak and put Strickland squarely back into title contention.
Sean Strickland ends Anthony "Fluffy" Hernandez streak at Toyota Center
In the UFC Houston main event at the Toyota Center, Sean Strickland, the former UFC middleweight champion, stopped Anthony "Fluffy" Hernandez at 2: 33 of Round 3. The knockout marked Strickland’s first stoppage since 2023 and came in his first fight after more than a year out of the cage; his prior bout was a loss in early February 2025 to then-champion Dricus du Plessis in a failed bid to regain the title. Strickland entered the fight with a 30-7 record, while Hernandez carried a 15-3 mark with one no-contest into the matchup.
Fight sequence: jab, body knee and a flurry that produced the 2: 33 stoppage
Strickland fought primarily behind his jab and heavy volume, creating space and landing repeatedly while Hernandez offered surprisingly few grappling attempts. Hernandez found moments with his striking in Round 2, but nothing that altered Strickland’s game plan. In Round 3, Hernandez wilted after a knee to the body, which opened the gate for a short flurry of punches that forced the referee to stop the bout at 2: 33.
Co-main impact: Uros Medic’s 79-second knockout of Geoff Neal
The co-main event delivered a quick, decisive result when Uros Medic (13-3) landed a left hook to the temple that knocked Geoff Neal (16-8) out 79 seconds into the opening round. The loss was Neal’s second consecutive defeat in the UFC and his fourth in five fights, while Medic added a high-profile finish to his record. Medic has only fought past the second round once in his career, a detail that framed expectations for his aggressive approach.
Featherweight highlight: Melquizael Costa’s spinning back kick and six-fight streak
On the undercard, Melquizael Costa (25-7) extended his winning streak to six with a spinning back kick to the face that finished Dan Ige (19-10) late in the first round. Costa’s finish underscored his ascent in the featherweight division and earned him one of the night’s performance bonuses.
Bonuses, broadcast schedule and broader title ramifications involving Khamzat Chimaev
Performance bonuses of $100, 000 were awarded to Sean Strickland, Uros Medic, Melquizael Costa and Jacobe Smith. The event’s timing had been scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 21, with an eight-fight early preliminary card beginning at 5 p. m. ET and a six-fight main card at 8 p. m. ET, and the full card streamed on Paramount+.
After his stoppage win, Strickland publicly called out reigning middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, saying he wants a shot at the unbeaten titleholder. That outreach follows a prediction-line narrative that three of Strickland’s past four fights had gold on the line and that a big win would create a clear path back to the belt. If Hernandez had won, his eight-fight run — the longest streak in the division — likely would have earned him a title opportunity; the setback removes that immediate route.
What makes this notable is the convergence of timing and circumstance: Strickland ended more than a year away from competition with a stoppage, reasserting his case for a title rematch after having fallen to Dricus du Plessis twice in recent fights while also holding notable victories over Paulo Costa and an upset of Israel Adesanya earlier in his career. The timing matters because the division’s picture had been reshaped by Hernandez’s eight-fight climb and by expectations that a main-event winner would surface as the next No. 1 contender — even with other names such as Nassourdine Imavov in the periphery.
The card also carried peripheral storylines that fed into matchmaking questions: concerns had been raised about Hernandez’s recent injury and how he would bounce back; Geoff Neal had been coming off a potentially career-changing knockout loss to Carlos Prates; and Medic’s rapid-finishing style had been flagged by analysts who noted he rarely goes past the second round. Social reaction and clips of Strickland’s statement performance circulated on Feb. 22, 2026, amplifying the immediate attention.
sean strickland’s victory reshuffles the title chase and hands Hernandez his third stoppage loss, leaving both fighters and the UFC to recalibrate next steps in a division that now looks toward a potential showdown with Khamzat Chimaev.
