If Israel
Adesanya had an off night at UFC 293, he may very well get a
chance to right that wrong in short order.
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“The Last Stylebender” relinquished the middleweight strap to
Sean
Strickland via unanimous decision in Saturday’s headliner at
Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. It’s a result that will
likely go down as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
“Israel looked like he was in slow motion,” UFC president Dana
White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “He looked
like he couldn’t get off. He looked like he was really stiff
tonight. He looked very slow.
“There are a million things that could go wrong. Some days you wake
up and you’re just not there, man. It’s just not there. He looked
bone-dry tonight, standing up really tall. He looked very slow. He
looked like he couldn’t get off at all. Even in the fifth round
when everybody knew he needed a knockout to win the fight, there
was no sense of urgency to try to finish the fight. So I don’t know
if he’s hurt or if tonight’s the night.”
Adesanya only gave a brief statement on the podium, instead
deferring to City Kickboxing coach Eugene
Bareman to handle questions from the media. Still, White
believes the former champion is more than deserving of an immediate
rematch.
“I think you do the rematch, absolutely,” White said. “The rematch
is interesting. That could be the thing, too. When you think about
you’re going into the [Alex] Pereira fight, such a big fight, and
you’ve been in there with this guy so many times, and then you
overlook Strickland. You come in and I don’t know. I don’t know the
answers to these questions, but Israel does, and I’m looking
forward to hearing it.”
With that being said, White also credited Strickland for proving
the doubters wrong with his performance in the Octagon.
“He came into hostile territory with the whole world talking s—t
about him, the whole world saying he couldn’t do it,” White said.
“A seven-to-one underdog, he came in and almost finished him in the
first round and won the championship, won the world title.
Everything that we’re talking about right now about how crazy this
sport is, when opportunities arise, you jump on them and you take
them. You should never turn down fights when you get the call,
especially if it’s for a world title.”
If a rematch is the UFC’s desire, Strickland himself won’t offer
much resistance.
“If I’ve learned anything about the UFC, it’s when do you have a
f—-ing choice of who you fight?” Strickland said. “The UFC never
comes up here and says ‘Hey Sean, would you like to fight this guy
or would you like to fight this guy?’ The UFC says ‘Hey, you’re
fighting this guy, fight this guy.’
“At the end of the day I’m the champion, so f—-ing line them up,
I’ll knock them down or get knocked down.”