In recent days Darren Till had floated the idea of fighting Sean Strickland next, but it seems his intended opponent has other ideas about who he’d like to fight next.
“Instagram blocked me, joked about a pedophile dying and I guess they didn’t like it lol!!!!” Strickland wrote on Twitter. “Anyways I’m not fighting Darren Till. I want [Paulo] Costa and if Costa can’t put down the wine and cookies I want Jack [Hermansson].”
In terms of the middleweight rankings, Strickland vs. Till actually makes a lot of sense despite the former’s dismissal of it since he’s currently placed No.7, while Till is No.8.
However, looking a little deeper it seems less fair given that Strickland is in the midst of a five-fight winning streak, while Till has only won once in his last five outings.
As such it’s clear that the 30-year-old Strickland wants to compete against people higher than him on the ladder, and Costa is No.5, while Hermansson is No.6.
It remains to be seen what Costa’s next move will be after he completely botched his weight-cut prior to his last fight against Marvin Vettori, leading to it being switched to light-heavyweight on short-notice. Costa then went on to lose by unanimous decision, leaving him on a two-fight losing streak after having previously been defeated by middleweight champ Israel Adesanya last year.
As for Hermansson, he’s coming off a unanimous decision victory over Edmon Shahbayzan in May and is 3-2 in his last five Octagon appearances.
