Dricus Du Plessis will become the new UFC middleweight champion.
That’s according to the official prediction from former 185-pound titleholder Israel Adesanya, who expects “Stillknocks” to not only defeat Strickland in the UFC 297 headliner, set for this Sat. night (Jan. 20) at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, but also submit “Tarzan” before the end of the fifth and final round.
“I’m going to go with Dricus,” Adesanya said on YouTube. “Is it going to go the distance? I’m going to say no. Not that I don’t respect Sean or his skills, the guy beat me. Of course, I respect his skills. I’ll say [submission]. He’ll submit him.”
Strickland defeated Adesanya in the UFC 293 headliner last fall in Sydney. After the fight, “The Last Stylebender” was noncommittal about his Octagon return, but will reportedly be seated cageside when “Tarzan” defends against “Stillknocks” this weekend in “Hogtown.”
“Dricus is going to try to wrestle him,” Adesanya continued. “Stand up in the beginning, do his off-beat rhythm, all that stuff. He might get jabbed in the first round by Sean and then have to really switch to the grappling because Sean’s jab is underrated. I never underestimated it but it’s underrated and I figured it out. It didn’t take me long to figure it out after the fight. In the fight, I had some other s*** going on that I wasn’t able to figure it out, I was worried about some other stuff self-consciously to do with me, not to do with him.”
The winner of Strickland vs. Du Plessis could move on to fight Adesanya later this year, unless the promotion pulls the trigger on this undefeated contender.
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