Looks like the land down under loves them some John Denver.
Over the weekend, one of the biggest upsets in UFC history went down when Sean Strickland absolutely dominated the champion Israel Adesanya, winning by unanimous decision at UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia.
Many sportsbooks had Izzy as a 7 to 1 favorite entering the fight but none of that mattered as Strickland pressured forward and landed some hard shots, both knocking Izzy down for the first time in his career and taking away the belt from one of the most successful middleweights of all-time.
But it wasn’t just Sean who put on a great performance. The card was loaded with fighters from Australia and New Zealand and many of them scored huge wins in front of their home crowd, but for my money, none was more impressive than Justin Tafa’s first round finish of former NFL defensive lineman Austen Lane.
Of course, we can talk about how he actually performed in the fight, but it was the walk out that set the tone for what was about to come.
The man from Auckland, New Zealand chose John Denver’s classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads” as his walk out song and the crowd went absolutely bananas, screaming along to every word while pounding their Fosters, which confused announcer (and former two division champion) Daniel Cormier but undoubtedly displayed just how cool the Aussies are.
Take a look at the walk out from a fan’s perspective here.
Certainly not what you’d expect to serve as a pump up song before getting in a cage fight, but the results speak for themselves.
Tafa went on to absolutely dominate Lane, finishing him in the first round with a powerful left hook that sent him to the canvas and a few vicious ground and pound shots to end it.
We need some more country music walk out songs in the UFC, especially since they seem to work pretty dang well…
