Sean Strickland Angles for Title Shot: ‘We Need Some Fresh Blood In There’

At the very least, Sean Strickland knows he’s a fresh face in in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight title picture.

Given a high-risk, low-reward matchup in the UFC on ESPN 48 main event, Strickland delivered in a big way, as he defeated Abusupiyan Magomedov via second-round technical knockout on Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. With back-to-back triumphs over Magomedov and Nassourdine Imavov in 2023, the 32-year-old pleaded his case for a 185-pound title shot against Israel Adesanya.

“F—k, man. It needs to happen, you guys. “We know Izzy is on f—king repeat, dude,” Strickland said at the post-fight press conference. “They try to bring Abus [in]. This is what the UFC said, ‘Man, the middleweight division is stagnant. Let’s get Abus in here. He might beat Sean.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah right, mother f—ker. Wait until you see what happens. Every time they’ve tried to bring new blood, [like] the Frenchie [Imavov] I fought before, I sent him home. This guy, I sent him back. Every time they try to bring new blood in, I send them back. Give me the f—king title. I earned it.”

“… The one before that, I fought the other guy they were trying to [push], their last phenom that they were trying to [push]. I took that guy on three-day f—king notice. I took him on in a five-round war and won every f—king round. I paid my dues. I’ve f—king paid my dues. Give me that s—t.”

As it currently stands, Adesanya is expected to face the winner of the Robert Whittaker-Dricus Du Plessis clash at UFC 290 next weekend. While there is some heat between Adesanya and Du Plessis, Whittaker — who is 0-2 against the reigning champion — will be a considerable favorite in the bout. Count Strickland among those who believes Whittaker will prevail.

“I think Whittaker’s going to walk through Dricus,” Strickland said in a separate interview on the ESPN+ post-fight show. “Whittaker’s going to walk through him. We’ve seen Izzy fight everybody. We’ve seen Izzy fight all the top guys. Let’s get some fresh blood in there. Let’s throw some new meat at him. Maybe I’ve got something he don’t have. Maybe we take it into deep waters, see what’s up.

“Give me the title [shot]. You know you want to see it. You don’t want to see Dricus fight Izzy.”