Israel Adesanya is widely regarded as one of the best middleweights in UFC history but don’t expect former opponent Sean Strickland to sign any petitions to keep him on that list.
This past weekend, Adesanya suffered a second consecutive loss for the first time in his career when he fell by rear-naked choke submission to Dricus du Plessis in the UFC 305 main event. That fight came almost one year after Strickland dominated Adesanya over five rounds to claim the middleweight title in a stunning upset.
Despite those losses, Adesanya is still a highly revered former champion but Strickland just doesn’t understand the hype around “The Last Stylebender.”
“I have an unpopular opinion, you guys aren’t going to like it. I just don’t think Izzy’s that good,” Strickland said on the Verse Us podcast. “So let me tell you why. Like going into it I’m like I’m going to beat the f*ck out of you. You watch anime, you suck, I’m going to f*ck you up. Everybody is like ‘why would you say that about Izzy?’
“When he fought Kelvin [Gastelum], I think Kelvin sucks. Everyone’s like ‘Izzy’s this and that.’ I’ve sparred Kelvin so many times where I’m like you kind of had a close fight with Kelvin. Like you’re not that f*cking good. You fought f*cking [Paulo] Costa. Costa was scared shitless of you. You f*cking blew on him, he fell asleep. Izzy’s not that f*cking good.”
Strickland clarified his feelings towards Gastelum after they spent quite some time training together when both fighters were working out of southern California but that didn’t change his opinion on Adesanya after watching them fight.
“I love Kelvin. Kelvin is a standup guy,” Strickland said. “When I say you’re not that good, I’m talking about 90 percent of the roster. I’m talking about the 10 percent of the f*cking most elite guys. That’s what I’m talking about and you’re not in that.
“When [Adesanya] fought Kelvin, I was like you let Kelvin have that close of a fight with you? If I fought Kelvin, Kelvin wouldn’t even touch me. It would be one of those fight where you’re like ‘I just want this thing to f*cking end.’”
Strickland clearly didn’t see himself as an underdog heading into the fight against Adesanya and he proved that with a lopsided decision win.
He had a similar feeling about Adesanya heading into his showdown against du Plessis this past Saturday after watching some training footage from his camp in New Zealand.
“I watched the highlight of his training and Dan Hooker, who I like, is just f*cking ragdolling him on the ground,” Strickland said. “Ragdolling him. Dan, he is a savage but I will smoke you in wrestling and I will smoke you in wrestling for five rounds.
“The fact that you are taking this f*cking middleweight, world champion and you’re just beating the living f*ck out of him everywhere.”
While his opinion on Adesanya as a fighter was clearly never very high, Strickland also believes he may have altered his future after beating him so decisively when they met back in September 2023.
The fight came a few months after Adesanya finally vanquished his greatest rival in Alex Pereira and he ended up with Strickland as an opponent mostly because du Plessis was nursing an injury following a win over Robert Whittaker in July.
Adesanya was an overwhelming favorite but Strickland took it to him for nearly 25 consecutive minutes.
Strickland can’t help but wonder if that played at least some part in Adesanya’s eventual downfall against du Plessis at UFC 305.
“I think I f*cked up Izzy when he lost to me,” Strickland said. “I think that f*cked his head up a little bit. He was like ‘this white trash motherf*cker missing half his leg comes and walks through me without struggle.’ I think that f*cked him up. I think that f*cked him up a decent amount. Not only that but I did it from such an insulting way. Like I was making fun of his f*cking life.”
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