Dana White has put an end to speculation about who will be next to challenge current UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis by confirming that it’ll be Sean Strickland.
Du Plessis own coach had stated in recent days his belief that the winner of UFC 308’s co-main event fight between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev was likely to overtake the No.1 ranked contender Strickland for the title shot, but it seems that’s not the case.
“Yes, [Strickland is still next],” White stated during his post-fight interview following the latest episode of the Contender Series last night.
Strickland had been adamant that he should be next after having only narrowly lost the title to DDP by split decision back in January. The 33-year-old believes he won that fight and has since gone on to beat Paulo Costa by split decision to stay in the No.1 contender spot.
Meanwhile, Du Plessis went on to successfully defend his belt against Israel Adesanya in August, winning by a 4th round neck crank submission.
At this stage it’s not clear exactly when or where the Du Plessis vs. Strickland rematch will take place, but it seems that it’s unlikely to be in Africa, despite the champion’s eagerness to fight in his homeland.
“You know how bad I want this,” White told reporters. “I’ve been trying to get this thing done. The arena situation there is tough. It’s tough to pull off. So that’s been the challenge with Africa as a whole. We’re trying to figure it out.
“The place that we would have to do it at is outdoors, and you know how I feel about that. So I’ve been trying to figure out the weather and one of the big things that I’ve been hearing out there is that wind is a big problem. We’ve done it a couple times, but anything that could affect the outcome of the fight makes me not even want to try. And it’s anything, from wind, rain, bugs, too much humidity. A lot of things can interfere with the fight.”
