Sean Strickland hasn’t been keen on the inflow of worldwide expertise in Final Preventing Championship (UFC).
The previous Middleweight champion sits atop the rankings in one of many promotion’s most culturally various divisions. In his final 14 bouts, Strickland has battled solely two of his fellow People since November 2017.
It’s nothing new for the 185-pound division to have worldwide expertise rule the roost. Most clearly, Brazil’s Anderson Silva etched his identify into the historical past books as one of the dominant champions in combined martial arts (MMA) historical past throughout his file 16-fight successful streak and 10 title defenses in UFC (Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold). In between Silva and Strickland, there have been solely two of 10 title reigns that belonged to People. The outspoken “Tarzan” wish to see his countrymen step up.
“At one level, there’s gonna be no f*cking People left within the UFC,” Strickland instructed MMA Mania. “We’re all gonna be watching Dagestanis and Russians, Brazilians preventing. Nobody’s gonna give a f*ck. So, that’s what I take into consideration that, . Let’s make the UFC American once more.”
Strickland, 33, misplaced his title to South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis in a intently contested break up choice at UFC 297 in January 2024 (watch highlights). He rebounded to get again within the win column with a five-round break up choice over Paulo Costa at UFC 302 final month (June 1, 2024).
With the win and shut nature of his du Plessis loss, Strickland believes he deserves his rematch for gold and is planning to attend for it it doesn’t matter what. Sorry, Robert Whittaker, your fellow former champion is not budging on that one. In the meantime, du Plessis will make his first title protection towards Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 subsequent month (Sat., Aug. 17, 2024).
