Dricus Du Plessis will change into the brand new UFC middleweight champion.
That’s in line with the official prediction from former 185-pound titleholder Israel Adesanya, who expects “Stillknocks” to not solely defeat Strickland within the UFC 297 headliner, set for this Sat. night time (Jan. 20) at Scotiabank Enviornment in Toronto, but additionally submit “Tarzan” earlier than the tip of the fifth and ultimate spherical.
“I’m going to go together with Dricus,” Adesanya stated on YouTube. “Is it going to go the space? I’m going to say no. Not that I don’t respect Sean or his expertise, the man beat me. After all, I respect his expertise. I’ll say [submission]. He’ll submit him.”
Strickland defeated Adesanya within the UFC 293 headliner final fall in Sydney. After the struggle, “The Final Stylebender” was noncommittal about his Octagon return, however will reportedly be seated cageside when “Tarzan” defends in opposition to “Stillknocks” this weekend in “Hogtown.”
“Dricus goes to attempt to wrestle him,” Adesanya continued. “Get up to start with, do his off-beat rhythm, all that stuff. He would possibly get jabbed within the first spherical by Sean after which have to actually change to the grappling as a result of Sean’s jab is underrated. I by no means underestimated it however it’s underrated and I figured it out. It didn’t take me lengthy to determine it out after the struggle. Within the struggle, I had another s*** happening that I wasn’t in a position to determine it out, I used to be nervous about another stuff self-consciously to do with me, to not do with him.”
The winner of Strickland vs. Du Plessis may transfer on to struggle Adesanya later this 12 months, except the promotion pulls the set off on this undefeated contender.
MMAmania.com will ship LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow protection of your entire UFC 297 struggle card proper RIGHT HERE, beginning with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6:30 p.m. ET, adopted by the remaining undercard stability on ESPNN/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, earlier than the PPV fundamental card begin time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
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