Earlier this week, Sean
Strickland
claimed to have punched a trash-talking Israel
Adesanya fan.
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“Boom, right in the guts,” Strickland told Fox Sports Australia.
“I’d only been in Australia a day and already I’d committed an
assault. Initially, I thought the guy was coming up for a photo.
Because anybody who wants a photo, man, I love the fans. But if you
wanna come up to me and run your f—-ing mouth, I’ll smack you like
I smack anybody else.
“Uppercut to his stomach. Then I walked away. But if I see the guy
again, man, no problems. … I’ll thank him for not pressing
charges.”
Strickland, who will face Israel
Adesanya for the middleweight title in the UFC 293 headliner,
is known for making outlandish statements to garner attention. In
this case, the “punching” was more in jest, according to UFC
president Dana White.
“Do you know where the news came from that he punched a fan?” White
said at the post-fight press conference for the Contender’s Series
on Tuesday. “[From him,] yeah. He’s a beauty. He played it up more
than whatever. It was jokingly, the fan and him are cool.”
With that being said, White doesn’t seem particularly thrilled
about the incident, and Strickland will be monitored to ensure that
he makes it to the Octagon on Saturday night.
“Going into this, I knew what this week was gonna be like,” White
said. “Yes, we’re prepared for it and yes we have people around him
now so he won’t be punching people in the stomach anymore. For fun
or not for fun.”