The Severe Spotlight: Sean Woodson

As MMA fans, it is rare in the modern era that we have back-to-back cards that produce emotive, compelling, and storyline rich fights. UFC 268, UFC 269, and UFC Vegas 42 was a feast of all of those things.  An eleven-course platter was laid out across the night that saw 9 fights end by finish, and how the main event didn’t end in a finish I will never, ever know.  

Da Un Jung took the spotlight from Kennedy Nzechukwu with a first round bludgeoning. Rafael Alves bullied Marc Diakese to a first round submission. Andrea Lee left Cynthia Calvillo with no answers, and her and her corner made the smart decision to fight another day after the second round. Europe has a new star in Joel Alvarez, who destroyed Thiago Moises.

The Song Yadong hype train is quickly gathering speed as he adds another finish to his 9-fight UFC stretch (4 finishes in the UFC). Khaos Williams came out on top in an all-out firefight against Miguel Baeza stopping him in the third. Felicia Spencer then dealt one of the most one-sided beatings recent times have seen against Leah Letson, and Marcos Rogerio de Lima ran over Ben Rothwell becoming only the second man to stop Ben via strikes.

All of that, before the main event. Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez walked out and put on a fight of the year contender. Just an emotional rollercoaster that showed everything beautiful about MMA.

Right, after all that. Let’s get to the meat of this week’s article.

The spotlight we will shine this week is 6”3, 145lb Missouri standout, Sean Woodson. Woodson entered the UFC after a viral flying knee knockout over Terrence McKinney. A one-sided matchup against Kyle Bochniak was to follow, before he suffered the first loss of his professional MMA career being submitted by Julian Erosa. To get himself back into the win column he won a split decision over highly touted prospect Youssef Zalal.

Woodson delivered one of the first-round finishes on this card, tucked away four fights into the madness that was UFC Vegas 42.

A good indicator for the level of striking a fighter has, is the amount of power that put into shots. Woodson opens his account with a loose right hand. Followed by a slighter looser jab with a more solid right hand behind it. Anglin returned with bombs and bombs require energy. The variety was ultra-impressive and the second key to his victory. Teeps from both legs allowed him to keep Anglin at a range he was comfortable with allowing him to mix his hands high and low.

The third, and most prominent key to Woodson’s victory was the bodywork. The teeps obviously were a big addition, stabbing the ball of the foot into the soft sections of the stomach and solar plexus is never an enjoyable experience. But the hooks, the rib roasters, the liver splitters were the real tale. At the start, during and at the end of combinations Woodson dug deep to the body, sapping the air from the lungs of an already hard-working Anglin.

The finish came, along with another impressive display of the depth to Woodson’s striking understanding. He had hurt Anglin on multiple occasions who was desperately searching for a way to stay in the fight. Woodson intelligently picked his shots, worked straight punches to bring the hands up and landed the cleanest left hook to the liver you will see, dropping Anglin finally and referee Herb Dean called a stop to the fight (at the right time in this one, promise).

Who would you like to see Sean Woodson fight next?