Sean Strickland will finally get a title shot as he will headline UFC 293 in Australia against Israel Adesanya.
After Strickland scored a TKO win over Abus Magomedov, he called for a title fight but wasn’t sure he would get it. Then, after Dricus Du Plessis beat Robert Whittaker by TKO, Strickland assumed he would be passed over for the title shot.
However, Du Plessis ended up suffering an injury in the fight and couldn’t make the turnaround to face Adesanya in Australia. With that, the UFC then turned to Sean Strickland, and his coach Eric Nicksick made it known they were training for that date ever since Strickland beat Magomedov, so they aren’t viewing this as a short notice fight.
Nicksick explains why Strickland vs. Adesanya is a short-notice fight
“Being ready, being in the gym, staying in shape has always allowed us to take short notice fights,” Nicksick said to MiddleEasy. “In my opinion, there is no short-notice fights if you are staying in the room, staying in the gym. When he won and beat Abus, obviously Dricus did what he did with Whittaker, his first thing was ‘Ah shit, I don’t know if I’m going to get that fight now.’
“I said ‘bro, picture that you are fighting.’ Even if it’s a title eliminator they might even put us on the same card. So, get in your head you are fighting, stay in shape, stay ready to go, so we didn’t want a week or two off and all of a sudden we are behind the eight ball. In fairness, I really feel like we have known about this in our hearts since we beat Abus,” Nicksick continued.
With Eric Nicksick saying Sean Strickland was in the gym training, they feel well prepared to go down to Australia and upset Israel Adesanya.
