Former champion Israel Adesanya has chosen sides for the upcoming bout between UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis and contender Sean Strickland.
Nigerian fighter Adesanya is one of the UFC’s most exciting and famous fighters. The former middleweight champion has had a good run in the UFC but lost his title to Sean Strickland at UFC 293. The fighter got an opportunity to face current champ DDP and reclaim the title, but he lost the bout. After this defeat, the fighter decided to take a break from MMA but not before a rematch. Although Adesanya has no intentions of gunning for a rematch with DDP, he does want another shot at a rematch against Sean Strickland.
“Strickland, definitely. That fight was not me,” Adesanya said on the JRE MMA Show. “Again, I don’t make excuses … (Dave Chappelle) said something like, ‘When it’s your time, you have to know and be humble enough when it’s someone else’s.’ That was just his week, and his, and everything. So it’s his time, let him have it, but I definitely know what I can do.
“I took his best shots, and I just know I can take this guy. I know what I can do. Not similar to the Pereira one where I was winning, but this one. I definitely know what I can do with this guy.”
Despite his eagerness to face Strickland, Adesanya will have to wait a while as the fighter is set to face champ Dricus Du Plessis. Adesanya has already chosen sides and has much confidence that DDP will destroy Strickland.
“They already fought before. I fought both of them,” Adesanya said on “The Adam Carolla Show ” “I think Du Plessis might get it done again. He’s just so weird. The way he fights is awkward. He’s stubborn. No matter how tired he gets, he’ll still just throw, just to stop you in your tracks or stop you from doing what you’re doing. And he’ll just throw and hope. It wouldn’t really land, but it would stop what you’re trying to progress.”
When asked what he thought about Strickland’s strategy in the fight, Adesanya replied,
“We’ll see what happens with him and DDP,” Adesanya said. “He could win, beat him, it was close (the first time). That was a rough fight. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens in that fight. Look, I kind of like the feeling of not knowing because sometimes people ask, ‘Who are you going to fight next? When are you going to fight next?’ I don’t know. I’m just chilling. I’m just going to keep training.”
