Sean Strickland believes he can outwrestle Israel Adesanya, but won’t be using it at UFC 293.
Strickland is set to headline UFC 293 against Adesanya for the middleweight title. It’s an intriguing matchup and one many fans are looking forward to, especially for the press conference.
Yet, heading into the fight, Israel Adesanya is a sizeable betting favorite as many expect the fight to play out on the feet, and for ‘The Last Stylebender’ to just outstrike him. However, Sean Strickland says he has been training to wrestle and should, but doubts he will.
“I’ve been wrestling a lot in camp but sometimes you know, you get up there and you look at another man and I think to myself, I want to f*****g stand and bang with this guy,” Strickland said to Nina-Marie. “So I probably should wrestle but that’s probably not going to happen. It’s not going to happen but I should wrestle, I’ve been planning to wrestle.”
Strickland has a black belt
Along with likely having the wrestling advantage, Sean Strickland also is a jiu-jitsu black belt, but he says he doesn’t care to grapple. Instead, he likes to stand and trade and believes a standup fight will be fun with Adesanya.
“Yeah I got one of those, yeah I got one a while ago, it’s bullsh*t, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work you guys, Jiu-Jitsu doesn’t work. It don’t work. It’s in my trunk somewhere, I lost my Gi, I don’t wear it anymore,” Strickland added.
If Strickland does go in and stand-and-trade with Adesanya, the middleweight champ has vowed to KO him. But, perhaps this is just talk and the American will go to his wrestling roots and try and out-grapple Adesanya to win the middleweight title at UFC 293 in Australia.
To earn the title shot, Strickland is coming off a TKO win over Abus Magomedov back in July.
