‘We Need Some Fresh Blood In There’

At the very least, Sean
Strickland knows he’s a fresh face in in the Ultimate Fighting
Championship’s middleweight title picture.

Given a high-risk, low-reward matchup in the
UFC on ESPN 48 main event, Strickland delivered in a big way,
as he defeated Abusupiyan
Magomedov via second-round technical knockout on Saturday night
at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. With back-to-back triumphs over
Magomedov and Nassourdine
Imavov in 2023, the 32-year-old pleaded his case for a
185-pound title shot against Israel
Adesanya.

“F—k, man. It needs to happen, you guys. “We know Izzy is on f—king
repeat, dude,” Strickland said at the post-fight press conference.
“They try to bring Abus [in]. This is what the UFC said, ‘Man, the
middleweight division is stagnant. Let’s get Abus in here. He might
beat Sean.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah right, mother f—ker. Wait until you
see what happens. Every time they’ve tried to bring new blood,
[like] the Frenchie [Imavov] I fought before, I sent him home. This
guy, I sent him back. Every time they try to bring new blood in, I
send them back. Give me the f—king title. I earned it.”

“… The one before that, I fought the other guy they were trying to
[push], their last phenom that they were trying to [push]. I took
that guy on three-day f—king notice. I took him on in a five-round
war and won every f—king round. I paid my dues. I’ve f—king paid my
dues. Give me that s—t.”

As it currently stands, Adesanya is expected to face the winner of
the Robert
Whittaker–Dricus Du
Plessis clash at UFC 290 next weekend. While there is some heat
between Adesanya and Du Plessis, Whittaker — who is 0-2 against the
reigning champion — will be a considerable favorite in the bout.
Count Strickland among those who believes Whittaker will
prevail.

“I think Whittaker’s going to walk through Dricus,” Strickland said
in a separate interview on the ESPN+ post-fight show. “Whittaker’s
going to walk through him. We’ve seen Izzy fight everybody. We’ve
seen Izzy fight all the top guys. Let’s get some fresh blood in
there. Let’s throw some new meat at him. Maybe I’ve got something
he don’t have. Maybe we take it into deep waters, see what’s
up.

“Give me the title [shot]. You know you want to see it. You don’t
want to see Dricus fight Izzy.”