Sean Strickland is the new UFC middleweight champion.
Not long after his bookie-busting upset over former 185-pound titleholder Israel Adesanya, which took place in the UFC 293 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last month in Sydney, UFC CEO Dana White teased an immediate rematch between “Tarzan” and “The Last Stylebender.”
Then had a change of heart in the days that followed.
“That fight just happened and a couple of fights are gonna play out here over the next month or so and then we’ll go from there and figure out what’s next,” White told reporters at the “Contender Series” press conference. “Whatever the best fight to make when all is said and done and who’s injured, who’s not injured, who can go, what time, where … there’s a lot of different factors that play into what we’re gonna do next.”
And a lot of different contenders with their eye on the prize.
That includes No. 1-ranked Dricus Du Plessis, who was offered the UFC 293 headliner but turned it down, paving the way for Strickland. He may now take a backseat to the Adesanya rematch, or perhaps the winner of Paulo Costa vs. Khamzat Chimaev, who collide at UFC 294 later this month in Abu Dhabi.
To see the rest of the middleweight Top 10 click here.