"That man will jump on any b*ll" - Sean Strickland lashes out at 'spineless' Israel Adesanya for participating in Australian tradition

The fight week for the Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland fight event kicked off on Monday and 'Tarzan' has already started the trash talk.

Adesanya was recently seen engaging in a traditional smoking ceremony with fellow Oceanic fighters like Tai Tuivasa, Jamie Mullarkey, Shane Young, and Tyson Pedro.

You can watch a clip of the fighters participating in the traditional ceremony below:

Strickland did an interview with MMA Junkie, where he was asked for his thoughts on 'The Last Stylebender's participation in the ceremony. 'Tarzan' was not too pleased by Adesanya's actions and went on to label him as 'spineless'.

"Why was he there? I thought he's Chinese, bro. What do you do to be Chinese? You go to re-education camp. Here's the thing about Izzy guys. Izzy is the definition of f**king spineless. That man will jump on any b*ll, any bandwagon that does him good, you know," said Sean Strickland.

Check out Sean Strickland's comments from the 2:06 mark below:

UFC 293 will mark Strickland's first appearance in the main event of a UFC pay-per-view. 'Tarzan' is currently riding a two-fight winning streak in the UFC and is coming off an impressive TKO win against Abus Magomedov.

His opponent, Adesanya, recently avenged his only middleweight loss by knocking out Alex Pereira at UFC 287. By doing so, the New Zealander also reclaimed his position on the middleweight throne.

---

Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland: Dan Hardy gives his thoughts on the fight

The middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland will be held at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on September 10.

Ahead of the highly-anticipated contest, several MMA experts have chimed in, giving their thoughts on the fight.

One of them is former UFC welterweight Dan Hardy. In a recent episode of The War Room podcast, Hardy spoke about the fight and predicted 'The Last Stylebender' to emerge victorious in the encounter.

"He's [Strickland] almost the antithesis of martial arts. He's like a modern day representation of Tank Abbott energy. Abbott could wrestle and he was a good athlete, but he was a street fighter...Sean Strickland brings that energy, a more modern style though of course. Adesanya should win every time...I'm not intending of being insulting but there is very little to his [Strickland's] game. No matter how effective he is with it."

Catch Hardy's comments here (5:20):