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He’s also experienced a shift when it comes to how he views his career inside the cage as well.
“I’ve accepted the fight,” begins Strickland, who was a highly regarded middleweight prospect when he arrived in the UFC and sports a perfect 15-0 mark when competing in the 185-pound weight class. “Instead of being all ‘I don’t want to get hit, I don’t want to lose,’ I’m at a point in my life where it’s just ‘let’s scrap and see what happens.’
“At this point in my life,” he continues, “I feel really good because I don’t have pressure to win. I can go in there and throw haymakers and maybe I get a cool knockout or maybe I get knocked out.
“It feels good to be at this point in my life.”
Originally scheduled to face Wellington Turman, the 30-year-old Marshman stepped in when the Brazilian was forced from the matchup due to the lingering impact of having contracted COVID-19 earlier in the summer.
An aggressive pressure fighter who has gone 3-4 in seven UFC starts, but who can always be counted on to leave it all in the cage, win or lose, Marshman should serve as a stern test for the returning Strickland, who is eager to share the cage with the fighting paratrooper.
“I know Jack’s a pressure guy and I want more than anything to put him back,” he says of Saturday’s showdown with Marshman. “I want to be able to say after the fight that he was a pressure guy and he didn’t pressure me.”