Coach wants to see Sean Strickland fight the winner of Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya: “We can fight by November or December”

The coach of Sean Strickland wants to see his pupil fight the winner of Dricus Du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya.

UFC 305 will feature the much-anticipated middleweight main event title fight between current UFC champion Dricus Du Plessis (21-2 MMA) and former two-time champion Israel Adesanya (24-3 MMA).

It will be Du Plessis’ first title defense on Saturday, August 17th, at UFC 305, which takes place at the RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia.

It was ‘Stillknocks’ who took the crown away from Sean Strickland (29-6 MMA) by split-decision this past January at UFC 297.

According to Strickland’s coach, ‘Tarzan’ ‘never really lost the belt’ and should get the opportunity to avenge that loss against Du Plessis.

Speaking with ‘MMA Fighting‘, Sean Strickland’s head coach, Eric Nicksick, shared the following:

“In my mind, he never really lost the belt. It was such a close fight against Dricus. He dominated Izzy. I think if Izzy wins that fight that’s an easy rematch, Izzy’s gonna wanna get that revenge. If Dricus wins, I think we put that (Izzy rematch) to rest and give Sean the opportunity to avenge that loss. So, both of them makes sense to me. I think Sean has a claim at the next shot at that belt and sit on it. These guys fight next week, so we can fight by November or December.’’

So there you have it, Nicksick believes that Strickland has a claim to the next shot at the middleweight title, regardless of whether Du Plessis or Adesanya are victorious at UFC 305.

Sean Strickland did fight Israel Adesanya in September of 2023 and defeated him by unanimous decision to claim the belt as his own.  The 33-year-old went on to lose the title to Du Plessis only 4 months later.

Do you agree with Nicksick that Strickland should be next in line to fight for the middleweight crown?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!