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Robert Whittaker was not stunned to see the Australian crowd get behind Sean Strickland in opposition to Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.
Strickland met Adesanya within the pay-per-view (PPV) predominant occasion for the latter’s then-middleweight crown. When it was all stated and achieved, Strickland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in combined martial arts (MMA) historical past, defeating “Stylebender” by way of unanimous determination. Throughout battle week, Strickland really garnered numerous assist from the Australian crowd.
Even throughout the battle, the group started to cheer for Strickland, who was clearly getting the higher of Adesanya throughout the contest. It was fairly an attention-grabbing flip of occasions given Adesanya is a New Zealand resident. Australian and former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker, nevertheless, was not stunned by this.
As he defined on The MMA Hour, Whittaker believes Strickland, who has a behavior of rubbing lots of people the incorrect method, hasn’t gotten to that time simply but with the Australian fanbase.
“No, I might’ve been stunned the opposite method,” Whittaker stated (by way of MMA Fighting). “I don’t know, and all people is aware of I’m not buddies with Izzy. I don’t hate the man, however I’m not buddies with him by any means. We simply rub one another the incorrect method. And he appears to rub lots of people the incorrect method. And I’m going to say, Sean, , he was sporting the [Crocodile Dundee] hat. He was sporting the hat. That’s one thing. Possibly that’s all it takes.
“Everybody has achieved foolish issues, ? I suppose Sean’s been, I believe, very offensive to lots of people proper? However to not us [in Australia] but,. Possibly we’ve been out of the crosshairs a bit bit, so possibly that performed a job. However one other factor is, like, the followers and the blokes that confirmed up on Sunday [at UFC 293], they like seeing exhausting fights and so they like seeing good fights. Sean went on the market and gave his all and had one of many largest upsets within the middleweight division.”
Whittaker isn’t any stranger to Adesanya. It was the Nigerian-born striker who defeated Whittaker again in 2019 by way of knockout, ending “The Reaper’s” reign as champion. They’d rematch in 2022, the place Adesanya once more defeated him, this time by way of unanimous determination. In his final outing, Whittaker was stopped by rising contender Dricus du Plessis within the second spherical this previous July. His subsequent opponent has but to be decided.
As for Strickland and Adesanya, it stays to be seen who the pair will battle subsequent after their title bout final month. Nonetheless, UFC president Dana White has steered he’d wish to see an immediate rematch.
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