Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland doesn’t intend on fighting again until he gets another title shot.
After losing his title to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in January, Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) rebounded with a unanimous decision win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302.
Robert Whittaker (26-7 MMA, 17-5 UFC) is also coming off a recent win over Costa, as well as a first-round knockout of Ikram Aliskerov in this past Saturday’s UFC on ABC 6 headliner. With Strickland and Whittaker vying for a title shot, Whittaker said he’s willing to fight Strickland for a No. 1 contender spot, but Strickland is not on board.
“Keep getting asked to fight Whittaker. I beat Izzy, the world knows I beat Dricus. Whittaker lost to both. I am the number 1 contender, I defended that spot easily against Costa. I will wait……”
Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) makes his first title defense against Israel Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in the UFC 305 headliner Aug. 17 at RAC Arena in Perth (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+). Strickland dethroned Adesanya at UFC 293 before losing his title to Du Plessis in a close decision loss.
Whittaker lost to Adesanya twice in title fights and to Du Plessis at UFC 290. He offered to serve as a backup for the title fight between Du Plessis and Adesanya – an idea UFC CEO Dana White is all for.
Reasonable. He put in the hard graft for it, he can just wait for the inevitable title shot.
Hope he gets the belal treatment.
Ah man, how am I supposed to get to sleep?
Life will never be the same without Strickland talking crazy and fighting lazy.
Mello tonin
Why? He beat Izzy, lost a close SPLIT decision to DDP, and now has beaten Costa, not like he waited all this time. He is right to wait now. Though for someone that used to say he didn’t care about the belt, it does sound weird ha ha.
I don’t like him, basically that’s it.
Nobody mentionin strickland and his brother having an argument with some rock climbing instructors?
https://x.com/i/status/1806073446922948901
he’s right. and rob is a tough fight for him.
Oh man!
That instructor and everyone else there do not realize how close they came to being bored to death with a Philly shell, a few jabs, and constant circling with nonstop leg checks.
They got lucky.
DDP is good but he didn’t really win that fight, he got lumped up and fought well
Strickland won the belt convincingly with knockdowns and breaking his oppenent
DDP has some success but it wasn’t even close to a convincing win
Hi
My name is Sean
LOL
Is it his general demeanor, and out look on life that u dont like about him?
I dislike some fighters too, I’m not attacking u, I
I’m just curious dawg.
I could see how ppl would not like him
Personally speaking, I like him,
I Hate his style of fighting, but it has been effective for him as of late
To put it plainly, he just seems like a jerk. A guy I would not like to be around. Could be totally wrong about him, but after the Costa fight I’m ok with him sitting out a while.
Solid answer bro.
Its crazy that him n Bobby haven’t fought,
I’m not saying he’s scared to fight Bobby as he maybe in a better position and why risk a potential title shot but…
Him Vs Whittaker, I had Bobby coming out victorious,
So why not wait it out? he’d be stupid not to
I agree with this…
But, you know how professional Dana is…
This, Rob can out point him or knock him out
Whittaker isnt known for his windmills, but for feints and accurate straight shots, hard fight for pussy strickland
Make Strickland vs Knuckles for the intern title… problem fixed