UFC Hall of Famer Michael Bisping has made a case for Sean Strickland to get the next shot at middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) stopped Abus Magomedov (25-5-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) by second-round TKO this past Saturday in the UFC on ESPN 47 headliner. Strickland called for a title shot against Adesanya, who awaits his next challenger for the UFC 293 card in September in Sydney.
A pivotal middleweight clash between former champion Robert Whittaker and rising contender Dricus Du Plessis takes place Saturday at UFC 290. If Whittaker beats Du Plessis, Bisping doesn’t mind seeing Strickland get the next title shot.
“Sean Strickland got the job done, and I’m telling you, what a performance,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “The man’s a character, he’s great on the microphone, he loves America, and people love him for that, as well. Of course he’s a big patriot and rightly so. Sensational performance. He wants to fight. He calls him the Chinese champion. I don’t know why he does that, (but) he wants to fight Israel Adesanya.
“He feels that Israel Adesanya has fought everyone. Of course, he’s fought Robert Whittaker twice, and the winner of Dricus (Du Plessis) vs. Robert is going to get the next title fight. He said there’s no way that Dricus wins, and he also said people don’t want to see Whittaker fight him again. I’ll be honest, after that one last night (win over Magomedov), I wouldn’t mind seeing it. And, of course, the trash talk in the lead-up to the fight would be phenomenal.”
Strickland and Adesanya went at it during the UFC 276 press conference, and Strickland has been poking fun at “The Lasy Stylebender” ever since. Strickland now has won two straight over Nassourdine Imavov and Magomedov.
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