Sean Strickland says his first defense of his middleweight title almost didn't happen.
Strickland headlined UFC 297 in January in Toronto, Ontario, Canada against Doricus du Plessis. Prior to the fight, Strickland was vocal about his dissatisfaction with Canada and also made controversial comments.
According to Strickland, a rematch with du Plessis is not scheduled after his comments during fight week nearly led to him being removed from the card.
“UFC fans want a showdown between me and Drikas,” Sean Strickland tweeted. “Dorikas wants to settle things. Everyone knows I fought in a shitty liberal country. Dana [White] I know that. The UFC knows that. If it had been anyone else on the roster, a rematch would have happened! Do the right thing, UFC…
“No, hey, that's a fact… believe me…” Strickland said when a Twitter user said that without a rematch with du Plessis, there's no way to prove he was intentionally robbed. replied: “Canada hates me to the core and threatened to pull me over. Look, dude, I'm not going to climb that damn ladder anymore…if that's not for me, [I don’t know], Boxing… Beat Jake Paul and make a lot of money (LOL). ”
Interestingly, Strickland has also talked about the possibility of a switch to boxing, even though he is one fight away from winning the middleweight title following a huge upset against Israel Adesanya.
Sean Strickland enters No Man's Land as middleweight
Sean Strickland had been campaigning for a rematch with Doricus du Plessis due to the fact that the match was highly competitive and a split decision.
But all signs point to the UFC having Du Plessis vs. Adesanya for the next belt. Dana White then announced that Robert Whittaker would face Khamzat Chimaev in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia for the No. 1 middleweight contender.
With Whittaker vs. Chimaev set to be the No. 1 contender's bout, Strickland doesn't have another fight booked and will likely need to win several matches to get another crack at the belt. There will be.
