Sean
Strickland challenged Israel
Adesanya for the middleweight title at UFC 293 at the Qudos
Bank Arena in Sydney last month, claiming the belt in one of the
year’s biggest upsets.
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As member of the City Kickboxing Gym in New Zealand and training
partner of Australian stars like Alexander
Volkanovski, it was general perception that Adesanya was the
home fighter. However, Strickland started showering praise on
Australia from the moment he landed in Sydney. He went on to
further connect with the audience during the presser and had them
rallying behind him on fight night.
Former middleweight champ Robert
Whittaker, who lost his strap to Adesanya in front of his home
crowd in Australia at UFC 243 in 2019, believes he knows why the
crowd rallied behind Strickland. While the newly-crowned
middleweight champ is known for his polarizing opinions, Whittaker
believes Australians don’t get offended easily. “The Reaper” also
noted that Adesanya just tends to rub some people the wrong
way.
“I don’t know, and everybody knows I’m not friends with Izzy. I
don’t hate the guy, but I’m not friends with him by any means. We
just rub each other the wrong way,” Whittaker said on „The
MMA Hour.”
“And he seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way. And I’m going
to say, Sean, you know, he was wearing the [Crocodile Dundee] hat.
He was wearing the hat. That’s something. Maybe that’s all it
takes.”