Robert Whittaker thinks he has an idea of why fans who attended UFC 293 in Sydney got behind Sean Strickland during his dominant performance over Israel Adesanya.
Strickland turned in a stellar showing against “Izzy” last month. He was a massive underdog going into the bout, but he cracked Adesanya with a punch that dropped him in the first round.
After the second stanza, Strickland took over the rest of the fight. He managed to dodge out of the way of Adesanya’s kicks, and used his Philly shell defense to pop his opponent and get out of the way of danger. Ultimately, Strickland captured the UFC Middleweight Championship via unanimous decision.
Robert Whittaker Isn’t Surprised Fans Backed Sean Strickland Over Israel Adesanya
During an episode of “The MMA Hour,” Robert Whittaker admitted that the fans getting behind Strickland instead of trying to rally Adesanya didn’t come as much of a shock to him.
“No, I would’ve been surprised the other way,” Robert Whittaker said on The MMA Hour, laughing. “I don’t know, and everybody knows I’m not friends with Izzy. I don’t hate the guy, but I’m not friends with him by any means. We just rub each other the wrong way. And he seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way. And I’m going to say, Sean, you know, he was wearing the [Crocodile Dundee] hat. He was wearing the hat. That’s something. Maybe that’s all it takes.”
Despite Strickland’s unfiltered personality, Robert Whittaker doesn’t believe the Australian fans have taken offense to the banter yet.
“Everyone has done silly things, you know? I guess Sean’s been, I think, very offensive to a lot of people right? But not to us [in Australia] yet,” Whittaker added with another chuckle. “Maybe we’ve been out of the crosshairs a little bit, so maybe that played a role. But another thing is, like, the fans and the guys that showed up on Sunday [at UFC 293], they like seeing hard fights and they like seeing good fights. Sean went out there and gave his all and had one of the biggest upsets in the middleweight division.”