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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 Saturday, Adesanya suffered a second consecutive loss for the first time in his MMA career when he fell by rear-naked choke submission to Dricus du Plessis in UFC 305’s 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 [UFC 293], 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 said he spent significant time training with Gastelum when both fighters worked out of southern California, and ultimately clarified his feelings toward the TUF 17 winner.
“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 [UFC] 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 the showdown against du Plessis at UFC 305 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 rag-dolling him on the ground,” Strickland said. “Rag-dolling 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 by beating him so decisively in September 2023.
The fight came a few months after Adesanya finally vanquished his greatest rival in Alex Pereira, and Adesanya 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 25 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.”
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Henry Cejudo isn’t trying to go out on a loss.
The former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion ended his mixed martial arts (MMA) retirement when he challenged Aljamain Sterling for Bantamweight gold at UFC 288 in May 2023. Unfortunately for Cejudo, he came up short via a split decision before going on to suffer a unanimous decision loss to the upcoming title challenger, Merab Dvalishvili.
Cejudo, 37, has called for possible opponents since his Dvalishvili loss but has revealed he’s been dealing with a nagging injury. Thanks to the delay, the Bantamweight contention line has grown longer with Umar Nurmagomedov and Deiveson Figueiredoemerging as the likely top two next up. Therefore, don’t count out a Cejudo return to the first division he won UFC gold in.
“There could be a potential return at Flyweight,” Cejudo told MMA Junkie. “These are a lot of things I’m contemplating, potentially going back down. With the Bantamweight division getting hot and with the newcomers coming in, there’s been a lot of thought of me going back down and getting a fight with [Brandon] Moreno and winning the belt once again. There’s a lot of cool stuff. These are kind of things I really want to think about and really decide once I get home and once I’m injury-free. It’s just one little thing, but it’s a major thing. Because I’m going to be making a commitment to go out there and just do another run, do another run at these titles, and dedicate myself like I was before.”
Although he’s clearly toward the tail-end of his career after already retiring once, Cejudo doesn’t just want to take any fun fights or “legacy” match ups. The two-time Olympic gold medalist has always targeted proving he’s the very best in the world, and that hasn’t changed.
“I’m after gold now. I think if I do go down to 125 pounds and stay disciplined, I don’t think there’s anyone that can beat me,” Cejudo said. “Plus, I think there’s a fun fight with Brandon Moreno. He wanted to fight me at 135 and then he backed out like a little b*tch. Now, I think if I go down and I beat him in Mexico, in his own country, I think that could be a big-ass payday, too.
“I don’t want to be fighting people just to fight people,” he continued. “I want to get close to that belt. I think that’s the position that I fall in right now. … If it’s something that I do decide to do, the biggest thing for me is going to be discipline and taking myself back there once again. It is the weight cut. But at the same time, I’ve been thinking about it. It’s what I need. Maybe I need more discipline. Maybe I need… if the bar is set that high, that means I have to have more commitment on that side.”
A women’s flyweight tilt is set for UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that a matchup between Viviane Araujo and Karine Silva takes place at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 in New York. MMA Junkie first reported the booking.
Araujo looks to get back to form and bounce back from a decision loss to Natalia Silva at UFC Vegas 85 in February. “Vivi” has dropped three of her past four fights, but did earn a decision win against past title challenger Jennifer Maia at UFC Vegas 81 this past October. The No. 13 ranked flyweight in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings makes her 12th walk to the octagon.
Silva enters her biggest fight to date riding an impressive nine-fight win streak, including a 4-0 start to her UFC run. In her most recent outing, “Killer” earned a unanimous decision win over Ariane Lipski at April’s UFC Vegas 91 event.
Seeing his first exhibition bout with John Gotti III end in a disqualification due to an alleged case of excessive trash talking in June of last year, former world champion boxing star, Floyd Mayweather confirms plans to KO his rival in definitive fashion in their rematch in Mexico this weekend.
Mayweather, who ended his professional boxing career back in 2017 following a stunning fiftieth professional win, most recently took on former two-weight UFC star, Conor McGregor, stopping the Dubliner with a punishing eventual tenth round knockout win.
Sharing the squared circle with Rockville Center, Gotti III in the summer of last year, Mayweather’s latest lucrative exhibition boxing venture ended in controversial circumstances – with the duo trash talking their way to an official disqualification result.
John Gotti III wants to KO rival Floyd Mayweather in personal rematch
However, taking on Michigan megastar, Mayweather this weekend in Mexico City in an exhibition rematch, Gotti III revealed plans to end his “personal” fight series with the former with a blistering knockout win.
“I know this is going to be a very tough fight,” John Gotti III told Big Fight Weekend. “I know there’s a lot of bad blood and I know man-to-man, Floyd (Mayweather) wants to settle this as do I. Forget all the boxing and all that other stuff. It’s between me and him. It’s personal.”
“In the ring, it’s personal,” John Gotti III explained. “Outside the ring, I wish him one hundred years of health and happiness. But how would I feel to knock him out? I’d feel great. He’s just an opponent now, he’s just a face. If he comes in the way he came in the first fight, he’s going to get caught. He was very lax and lazy. If he comes in – there was a lot of mistakes he made as well, he’s going to get caught.”
Ilia Topuria grabbed the UFC featherweight title from Alexander Volkanovski in just his seventh fight for the promotion. He now boasts a perfect 15-0 record and will defend the belt for the first time against Max Holloway at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on October 26, 2024.
Many looked past Topuria as an overconfident prospect ahead of the Volkanovski fight because he updated his record and status as the UFC featherweight kingpin on social media beforehand. However, he knocked out the champion in the second and silenced all the doubters.
“El Matador” is similarly sure about being the first fighter to knock out Holloway, that too in the first. He also claims “Blessed” to be an easier matchup for him than Volkanovski…
Ilia Topuria Predicts ‘Completely Masterpiece’ Performance Against Max Holloway At UFC 308
Topuria discussed his first title defense in an interview on the official MMA Junkie YouTube channel recently. He outright rejected fans who rank Holloway’s striking highly and proclaimed himself to be better in all areas.
“I feel like I’m way better than him everywhere. Simple like that. It’s like, it’s going to be a completely masterpiece, you will see, you will see. I will knock him out in the first round, there’s no doubts about that. It’s going to be even much easier than with Volkanovski because I consider that Volkanovski was like, a way difficult matchup for me and he proved it right? He beat the guy three times.”
“El Matador” also considers Volkanovski to be a much harder matchup for him than Holloway. “The Great” beat Holloway thrice, and a victory over him could be the source of Topuria’s high confidence.
Topuria added that Holloway’s been more vocal than usual with him due to fear. He also advised the challenger to avoid the wild swinging exchanges toward the end of rounds as it would make it easier for the champ to get a KO victory.
The UFC featherweight champion highlighted that he knocked out Volkanovski in seven minutes, unlike Holloway who’s had 75 minutes to do so.
READ MORE: Sean Strickland Shares Unpopular Opinion On Former UFC Middleweight Champ: ‘I Just Don’t Think Izzy’s That Good!’
Continue Reading Ilia Topuria Confident About Knocking Max Holloway Out In The First: ‘Much Easier Than With Volkanovski’ at MMA News.
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