“Politics bullsh*t” - Outrage erupts after ‘company man’ Sean Strickland gets denied UFC title shot against Israel Adesanya

As recently as earlier this week, UFC middleweight contender Sean Strickland looked like he was about to be given the biggest opportunity of his MMA career.

UFC 293 is set to take place in Sydney, Australia in September, and the promotion initially planned for middleweight champ Israel Adesanya to headline the event against top contender Dricus du Plessis.

However, with ‘Stillknocks’ apparently out of action, recent reports had begun to suggest that the title shot at UFC 293 would instead to go Sean Strickland.

‘Tarzan’ is currently ranked at No.6 in the division, and would’ve entered the fight off the back of two straight wins, including a TKO over Abus Magomedov this month.

Adesanya himself even seemed to confirm this, stating that Du Plessis was “out” and Strickland was “in” with a recent Twitter post.

Unfortunately, it now appears that Strickland’s dream of a title shot has gone up in smoke. The middleweight contender took to Twitter today to state the following in response to a fan’s mention of a fight between him and Adesanya.

“Ufc don’t want it.. sorry man.”

Unsurprisingly, this statement did not go down well with a number of Strickland’s fans, who replied to his Tweet with anger against the UFC.

User @SeltzerKing_, for instance, stated the following:

“Such bullsh*t. After all the favours you’ve done them. If DDP isn’t ready the shot should be yours. Politics bullsh*t.”

Users @ThatMMAguy710 and @JonDeFullerton also seemed highly disappointed with this announcement.

“There’s no way bro. That’s legit the Biggest fight in the middleweight division.”

“Nooooo. Wtf.”

User @jandrewskenora labelled Strickland a “company man” and stated that deserved a title shot, while user @xannnfreee simply seemed incredulous.

“Wtf, you’re a company man. You deserve it. Would be a legendary build up.”

“WHAT THE F*CK:(“

A number of fans, though, including users @power3389, @emperorratio and @bas__xz suggested that Strickland never deserved a title shot in the first place, while @SletKentDome seemed to have no interest in the fight:

“Yea because he kos you in a minute flat.”

“You don’t deserve title shot.”

“You don’t deserve it thats all.”

“Please do t take the Izzy fight I have 0 interest in seeing that.”

Users @GoddessChunLi and @Tony_Asc suggested different scenarios for both Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya:

“Well in that case I hope you get to fight Whittaker..after you beat him you’ll be #2 and that changes a lot of things for the better. Better in the long run for you.”

“ddp and sean is out.now only leave 2 options: 1.jared Cannonier or 2.jiri Prochazka for the vacant 205 belt..”

With this announcement, it remains to be seen what is next for both Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya.

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Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland: What did Jared Cannonier say about this bout?

One fighter who did not seem keen on the idea of a UFC middleweight title bout between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland was former title challenger Jared Cannonier.

‘The Killa Gorilla’, who defeated Strickland in 2022, claimed that he should be ahead of ‘Tarzan’ in the queue for a title shot. He also stated that Strickland would be a “punching bag” for Adesanya if he did fight him.

Watch Jared Cannonier’s comments on this potential fight below.