Robert Whittaker Not Suprised Aussie Fans Supported Sean Strickland at UFC 293

Sean Strickland challenged Israel Adesanya for the middleweight title at UFC 293 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney last month, claiming the belt in one of the year’s biggest upsets.

As member of the City Kickboxing Gym in New Zealand and training partner of Australian stars like Alexander Volkanovski, it was general perception that Adesanya was the home fighter. However, Strickland started showering praise on Australia from the moment he landed in Sydney. He went on to further connect with the audience during the presser and had them rallying behind him on fight night.

Former middleweight champ Robert Whittaker, who lost his strap to Adesanya in front of his home crowd in Australia at UFC 243 in 2019, believes he knows why the crowd rallied behind Strickland. While the newly-crowned middleweight champ is known for his polarizing opinions, Whittaker believes Australians don’t get offended easily. “The Reaper” also noted that Adesanya just tends to rub some people the wrong way.

“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,” Whittaker said on "The MMA Hour.”

“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.”