Watch UFC Fight Night Strickland vs. Hernandez 2/21/26 - 21st February 2026 Full Show Online HD:
Preview:
UFC Houston goes down this weekend (Sat., Feb. 21, 2026). This is the first non-PLE and non-APEX event of the Paramount+ era. And there’s a couple of interesting fights going on here. As a whole, though, the card isn’t much to write home about.
The main event is Sean Strickland vs. Anthony Hernandez with both men hoping a win gets them closer to new division champion, Khamzat Chimaev. UFC Houston’s co-main focuses on the Welterweight division and is designed to provide a stoppage. Indeed, Uros Medic — who has never seen a judges’ scorecard — will lock horns with “Hands of Steel,” Geoff Neal. Rounding out the main card is Dan Ige vs. Melquizael Costa, Serghei Spivac vs. Ante Delija, Jacobe Smith vs. Josiah Harrell and Zachary Reese vs. Michel Pereira. The featured “Prelims” fight is Chidi Njokuani vs. Carlos Leal (another fight with a great chance of a finish). UFC Houston’s undercard also has Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Punahele Soriano and Yadier del Valle vs. Jordan Leavitt.
It’s been more than one year since we saw Strickland compete. In Feb. 2025, he dropped a listless a unanimous decision to Dricus Du Plessis, as he unsuccessfully attempted to win back the belt Du Plessis took from him in Jan. 2024. Between DDP losses, he scored a prototypical Strickland victory over Paulo Costa (by split decision). Strickland is now 16-7 in UFC (29-7 overall) and three years removed from his stunning upset of Israel Adesanya to win UFC’s Middleweight title. Hernandez, meanwhile, has looked unstoppable lately. Since losing to Kevin Holland back in 2020, he’s won eight straight fights, mostly in dominating fashion. In August he big brothered Roman Dolidze before finishing him with a schoolyard choke . Before that, he took a comfortable decision over the wily Brendan Allen. And before that, he beat the snot out of Michel Pereira for 4.5 rounds.
Both these fighters are known for forward movement and forcing their opponents to back up. Hernandez, though, has a lot more malicious intent when he goes forwar. Strickland prods and pokes with his front kick and looks to exhaust his opponents. Hernandez tries to close distance, trap them on the fence and then batter them. The big question for me is whether Hernandez will get Strickland down. Hernandez does incredible damage from ground-and-pound and he can break opponents on the ground in quick fashion. Strickland has a very good 76 percent takedown defense on paper. Though, he hasn’t fought many guys who have made a concerted effort to take him down over and over again. Du Plessis tried that, in their first fight, and he succeeded six times on 11 attempts. That means Strickland’s takedown defense was 46 percent in that fight. Du Plessis also landed one of two takedown attempts in their second fight.
Hernandez completes 6.46 takedowns per 15 minutes at a 48 percent accuracy. He’s landed 23 of them across his last three fights. He leads the division in control time and is second, to Khamzat Chimaev, in both control time percentage and top position percentage. I think he’s going to get Strickland down in this fight and I think he’s going to be able to hold him down. I think this might look more like the Allen fight than the Pereira one, though. But, that still spells a win for Hernandez. Pitbull got him down five times on nine attempts (but only held him down for 2:44 minutes). Lerone Murphy landed three of five takedowns (but he was only able to get 2:17 minutes of control time). Ige has also been ragdolled by both Bryce Mitchell and Movsar Evloev in the past. The fact those two spammed so many takedowns is the only reason Ige doesn’t have a much worse takedown defense percentage on paper. Costa’s takedown accuracy is only 38 percent, but he attempts enough of them that he manages to get almost two every fight. Two takedowns is a lot in a close fight (the kind Ige often finds himself in). I don’t think Ige is going to bother trying to take down Costa, since Costa’s guard game is one of the more dangerous ones out there right now. I think this means Ige is going to be just kickboxing and I’m going to favor the guy who is going to be more willing to use his whole toolkit.
Match Card:
Prelims –5.00PM ET
- Welterweight Chidi Njokuani vs. Carlos Leal Miranda
- Flyweight Ode’ Osbourne vs. Alibi Idiris
- Flyweight Alden Coria vs. Luis Gurule
- Women’s Bantamweight Nora Cornolle vs. Joselyne Edwards
- Welterweight Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Punahele Soriano
- Welterweight Philip Rowe vs. Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani
- Featherweight Jordan Leavitt vs. Yadier del Valle
- Women’s Flyweight Juliana Miller vs. Carli Judice
Maincard – 8.00PM ET
- Middleweight Sean Strickland vs. Anthony Hernandez
- Welterweight Geoff Neal vs. Uroš Medić
- Featherweight Dan Ige vs. Melquizael Costa
- Heavyweight Serghei Spivac vs. Ante Delija
- Welterweight Jacobe Smith vs. Josiah Harrell
- Middleweight Zachary Reese vs. Michel Pereira
EVENT INFO :
- Show
- Location: Toyota Center In Houston, Texas.
