According to Israel Adesanya, he’s the reason Sean Strickland is getting a shot at gold.
Middleweight champion Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 13-2 UFC) defends his title against Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) in the main event of UFC 293 on Sept. 9 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims expected on ESPN and ESPN+.
Adesanya was originally expected to face Dricus Du Plessis, but after the South African fighter couldn’t make UFC 293 due to injury, Strickland got the call – and it appears the UFC weren’t initially keen on the idea.
“It wasn’t about him really,” Strickland said in an interview with It’s Time For Sports. “He should thank me for actually making the fight happen because without me, he wouldn’t have actually got the fight. I pushed for him to get the fight because he was the next logical guy.
“I’ve beat all the top five, some of them twice, so you can’t punish us for being great. I pushed for him to get the fight. He’s an idiot, but I can’t say too much about that. He’s an idiot, so he just has to behave himself and actually show up and just fight.”
Just how much convincing did Adesanya have to do? “The Last Stylebender” explains why it wasn’t easy to get his wish.
“A lot,” Adesanya said. “Like I said, he’s an idiot and you know, the UFC don’t want him embarrassing the company. But yeah, that’s all I’ll say about that, so he should thank me. He should really thank me for actually making him get the fight. I pushed for it. He (coach Eugene Bareman) knows what happened behind the scenes, and I pushed for it, and I’m glad the UFC trusted me to listen to me.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
