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Earlier this week, it was revealed that Dricus Du Plessis had an injury and wouldn’t be able to keep his appointment with destiny. Destiny being in the form of a title bout at UFC 293 with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya who issued a sizzling video response. In his video, he also called out a name as a replacement option. That name was Sean Strickland.
Sean Strickland off the cuff
It wouldn’t take long for media to zero in on the loquacious middleweight contender. Helen Yee would be the first to get comments and per his usual terse nature, he didn’t mince any words.
“I don’t think Dricus is that good and I think Izzy beats Dricus. I understand you, Dricus. It is very natural to just have a fight—which I just fought like a week before you—and then want to fly across the world to go fight a guy on seven weeks’ notice. It is very natural to say ‘I might not want to do that.’ But, I’m a f—ing man. I’m not a p—y. I have a price. You pay me money, I’ll f—ing fight him right here. Unlike Dricus who is probably the smarter man, the true African he is. I am not. You f—ing pay me, we’ll fight right here.”
The question of money always enters the equation when titles are on the line. For Strickland, it is the only factor that matters. When asked if it was on the Lebron James level of payouts, he didn’t pull any punches there either.
“I mean, it’s UFC money. It’s never LeBron James money, guys. We’re in the UFC, so we’re talking about like, you know, I might be able to put a new lift kit on my truck money or I might be able to upgrade my Hyundai Accent.”
As many have noted, Sean has no filter whatsoever. If a thought pops into mind, he’s not one to squash it no matter how it may come across, offensive or otherwise.
“Anyways, I understand you, Dricus. I’m not gonna hate on you. I know you and Izzy have some personal issues with you being African and him being Chinese and him not happy about that. I understand you. But I’m the man and I will f—ing do it. Pay me money and I’ll f—ing fight him for an hour straight or at least until somebody wakes up or goes to sleep.”
Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland negotiations
According to Sean, negotiations are already underway for the Israel Adesanya fight, and as mentioned above, it comes down to money. Pay that man his money.
“We’re in talks, you know we’re in talks. Like I said, it comes down to just f—ing pay me. Let me ask you this, do we really want to watch Dricus and Izzy fight? No, we don’t want to watch Dricus and Izzy fight. You want to watch me fight. Am I gonna win? I don’t know. But I’m gonna go in there and I’m gonna punch that Chinese mother—er right in the face.”
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