Sean Strickland has fired back at former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Strickland became the UFC middleweight champion back in September when he scored a stunning upset win over Adesanya. It was a shocking performance, and originally, Dana White wanted the two to have an immediate rematch, but Adesanya decided to take a break from MMA.
After Israel Adesanya decided to take a break from MMA, the UFC decided to book Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in Toronto. Ahead of the fight, Adesanya broke it down and gave his prediction. In his prediction, he picked Du Plessis to beat Strickland by submission.
“Dricus is gonna try and wrestle him,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Well, stand up in the beginning, of course, yeah. Do his offbeat rhythm, all that kind of stuff, but the problem is he might get jabbed by Sean in the first round and then really have to really switch to the grappling ’cause Sean’s jab is underrated… Official pick, I’m gonna go with Dricus. Does it go the distance? I’m gonna say no. Not that I don’t respect Sean or his skills. Guy beat me, so of course I respect his skills… I say sub. He’ll submit him.”
Du Plessis enters the fight as the betting underdog, but Adesanya thinks he will pull off the upset against Sean Strickland on Saturday.
Sean Strickland responds to Israel Adesanya picking against him at UFC 297
Following Israel Adesanya’s prediction, Sean Strickland was asked about it at the UFC 297 press conference and he fired back at the former champ.
“Listen, Izzy, the f*****g guy, the f*****g cringe lord. F**k Izzy, I could have taken Izzy down and beat his ass on the ground but I chose to stand with him like a man. What did he do the whole fight? Run away like a bitch. Izzy shut your f*****g mouth,” Strickland said at the UFC 297 press conference.
It’s clear Strickland wasn’t happy with Adesanya picking against him. However, what Adesanya thinks doesn’t have any impact on the fight, as Strickland has all the confidence he will beat Du Plessis to retain his belt at UFC 297.
