The UFC will return to the PPV platform in a few weeks with newly crowned middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis aiming to defend his belt for the first time against former champion, Israel Adesanya. At the same time, Sean Strickland and Robert Whittaker are waiting in the wings, although ‘Stillknocks’ has a solution for choosing the next challenger.
The middleweight champion recently sat down for an interview with Fox Sports, during which he shared his thoughts on what should happen in the middleweight division while he defends his belt for the first time. Interestingly, Du Plessis pushed for a fight between Whittaker and Strickland, claiming the winner should have the right to a title shot next.
“So in my honest opinion, I would love to see the fight with Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland. That is the fight that makes the most sense. Strickland is saying no, he does not want it.”
Dricus Du Plessis says Sean Strickland should fight Robert Whittaker for the next title shot:
“That is the fight that makes the most sense. Strickland’s saying no…”
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Strickland recently secured a win over Paulo Costa, and most believed that this would give him a shot at the title. However, the UFC changed their mind and awarded a title fight to Adesanya who returned to action a lot sooner than expected. Hence, Strickland has now stated that instead of taking a tune-up fight he would rather wait for the title fight to play out before jumping back into action.
Whittaker or Strickland: Who gets the next shot at the title?
Interestingly, both Whittaker and Strickland’s last loss came against Dricus Du Plessis. Since their losses, ‘The Reaper’ has secured wins over Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov, while ‘Tarzan’ has one sole win over Costa.
As things currently stand, it is more likely that Strickland will get the title shot since most people including Dana White believe that he did not lose the belt in the first place. Furthermore, if Adesanya emerges victorious then Whittaker will definitely not be getting the title shot since he is 0-2 against ‘The Last Style Bender’.
Hence, from the looks of it, the scales are tipped towards Strickland.
