UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski predicts a bad night for Sean Strickland against Israel Adesanya.
Middleweight champion Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC) defends his title against Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) in the UFC 293 main event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews/ESPN+ and early prelims on ESPN+.
According to BetMGM, Strickland is a whopping +600 underdog, meaning a $100 bet on the challenger would win $600 profit. Adesanya is a -425 favorite, meaning a $425 bet would be needed on the champion to return $100 profit. The odds heavily favor Adesanya, and so does his City Kickboxing training partner Volkanovski.
“I think it’s a great fight for him,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “Obviously, Sean is going to talk, Sean is going to try and get under his skin. That’s going to make it fun. But I feel Izzy is going to really, really put it on him – especially with the talk that’s going to happen. I think Sean Strickland is going to definitely pay for some of the things he’s going to say. Stylistically, I feel like he’s going to definitely get hurt.”
Strickland and Adesanya started trading barbs during a press conference back when they shared the UFC 276 card in July 2022. Strickland got knocked out by Alex Pereira that night, but has since gone 2-1, with back-to-back wins over Nassourdine Imavov and Abus Magomedov to earn his shot against Adesanya.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
