Dana White wants Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland rematch
UFC 293 resulted in one of the biggest upsets in MMA history as Sean Strickland dominantly took the middleweight title off Israel Adesanya. Once the bout concluded, speculation arose as to whether Adesanya would be gifted an immediate rematch.
At the UFC 293 post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White expressed interest in seeing the bout for a second time.
“I think you do the rematch,” White said. “The rematch is interesting. That could be the thing too. When you think about- you are going into the (Alex) Pereira fight, such a big fight, and you have been in there so many times, and then you overlook (Sean) Strickland. I don’t know, I don’t know the answers to these questions. Israel (Adesanya) does and I’m looking forward to hearing it.”
If Adesanya is granted an immediate rematch, it would be the second of his career. Adesanya was also given a rematch after his loss to Alex Pereira.
The two situations are different, however.
Adesnaya’s loss to Pereira came in the final round after winning a large majority of the bout. In the Strickland bout, he was thoroughly beaten over the course of five rounds.
The UFC middleweight division has plenty of title challengers outside of Adesanya. Dricus Du Plessis earned a title shot with a win over Robert Whittaker; Khamzat Chimaev could do the same in his upcoming bout against Paulo Costa.
Essentially, the UFC is put in the position to either honor one of its biggest superstars with another title fight or inject the division with a championship fight that does not include Adesanya for the time since 2017.
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