5 quickest turnarounds between fights in UFC history

#4. Sean Strickland – UFC middleweight contender

Sean Strickland returned from two years away from the octagon to win two fights in quick succession

Sean Strickland is currently one of the top contenders in the UFC’s middleweight division. ‘Tarzan’ is riding a six-fight win streak, but while his wins over Jack Hermansson and Uriah Hall helped to elevate his ranking, his two wins in late 2020 were arguably more impressive – because they came with just a 14-day gap between them.

Bizarrely, Strickland hadn’t fought for over two years before his fight with Jack Marshman in October 2020. A contract issue with the promotion, followed by nagging injuries caused by a motorcycle accident, left him on the shelf. However, he was clearly determined to make up for lost time when he returned.

‘Tarzan’ comfortably outpointed Marshman with his striking – entertaining the fans watching at home by trash-talking throughout the bout – and despite taking a handful of shots from the Welshman, didn’t appear to accumulate much damage.

A week later, middleweight prospect Brendan Allen’s fight with Ian Heinisch fell apart when Heinisch tested positive for COVID-19. So, the UFC decided to come up with a novel solution.

They offered Allen a fight with Strickland – who was more than happy to take the booking – on the following weekend’s show, just 14 days after ‘Tarzan’ had beaten Marshman.

In this instance, Strickland was definitely not favored to win. Allen was coming off three straight octagon wins and had looked highly impressive and had time to prepare for the bout.

Instead, Strickland again dominated with his striking skills, and eventually dropped Allen with a one-two and finished him off in the second round. It was a truly remarkable win, particularly given ‘Tarzan’ hadn’t fought since 2018 prior to the two fights.

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#3. Chas Skelly – UFC featherweight contender

Chas Skelly won two fights in 13 days back in 2014

When Chas Skelly announced his retirement following his victory over Mark Striegl in February, few eyebrows were raised. After all, despite being a UFC fighter for the best part of eight years, ‘The Scrapper’ had always largely flown under the radar.

However, Skelly’s one claim to fame was that at one point, he held the record for the quickest turnaround between fights in UFC history. More to the point, the hard-nosed wrestler found a way to win both bouts, making his record even more impressive.

After an unsuccessful octagon debut in April 2014 saw him lose to Mirsad Bektic, Skelly bounced back that August by submitting Tom Niinimaki with a first-round guillotine choke. The fight only lasted just over two minutes, so when Andre Fili was sidelined with an injury and was forced out of his bout with Sean Soriano just thirteen days later, in stepped ‘The Scrapper’.

Remarkably, despite basically having no training camp for the fight, Skelly looked very impressive in the fight, largely outworking Soriano - who, to be fair, had been training to take on a striker in Fili - on the ground.

Ironically enough, while Skelly’s career continued with several ups and downs in later years, he then managed an equally remarkable feat. He returned from nearly three years on the shelf to defeat Striegl - giving him back-to-back wins that spanned a grand total of 781 days.