[autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] doesn’t think too highly of former UFC middleweight champion [autotag]Robert Whittaker[/autotag].
Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) suffered a second-round TKO loss to Dricus Du Plessis (20-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) earlier this month at UFC 290, where he claimed that he didn’t show up.
Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC), who could be closing in on a title shot soon, was not impressed with Whittaker’s performance.
“Whittaker kind of looked like sh*t, man,” Strickland told Helen Yee. “I think it’s kind of weird. I think everybody thought Whittaker kind of looked like sh*t. Maybe Dricus is that awkward that he made him look like sh*t. But like, Whittaker’s just this one-trick pony. Whittaker can fight, but he is a one-trick f*cking pony. The moment that f*cking trick doesn’t land, and now it comes down to fighting in the pocket – when it comes to doing anything else besides a karate blitz, he doesn’t really have it.
“He did some sh*tty shot. I think Whittaker, whenever that karate blitz wasn’t landing, he started having those f*cking wheels start spinning, like, ‘Oh man, the thing that I do to everybody is not working. What do I do now? I guess we wrestle.’ And that didn’t work. It’s like, ‘What do we do now?’ When you’re a one-trick pony and that one trick works a lot, it’s f*cking great. But when it doesn’t work, it’s time to f*cking do the man dance.”
With champ Israel Adesanya insinuating that No. 1 contender Du Plessis can’t make UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney, “The Last Stylebender” called for Strickland to face him, but Strickland wants an increase in pay before jumping into the title opportunity.
[lawrence-related id=2659145,2657924,2657787]
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.