Sean Strickland has been so adamant that he deserves the next middleweight title shot that he’s willing to sit out until he gets it, and the good news for the outspoken star is that it turns out Dana White agrees with him.
“Listen, Sean Strickland right now is the number one ranked middleweight in the world, and the answer is yes (he will be next to fight for the title). We also have Whittaker vs Chimaev so we’re gonna have some fun fights,” White said during an interview with Jim Rome.
“All these fights are going to play out in the middleweight division which is gonna create some unbelievable fights for us going into (2025).”
Aside from his No.1 contender status, Strickland also makes sense next as he has unfinished business with both of the participants in this weekend’s UFC 305 headlining showdown.
Of course, he famously delivered one of the all-time biggest upsets last year when he dethroned Adesanya with a unanimous decision victory, and his subsequent title loss to du Plessis in January was only by split-decision, leaving the door open for a rematch between those two as well.
Du Plessis seems to have other ideas though, as he suggested earlier this week that if he beats Adesanya he believes the winner of Whittaker vs. Chimaev should be next in line.
“A split decision (against Strickland), it wasn’t a split decision that’s a crazy call, it was 100% unanimous,” Du Plessis told Shak MMA. “But the winner of Khamzat and Whittaker is gonna get the title shot, that’s got to happen.
“Strickland says he’s gonna wait, he’s gonna be waiting quite a while in my opinion… If Whittaker beats Khamzat, he’s 100% getting the title shot.”
It seems that White disagrees, although it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if he changed his mind again in the future, particularly if either Whittaker or Chimaev wins in emphatic fashion when they go head-to-head at UFC 308 in October.
