“In my head, he [Sean Strickland] never lost the belt. It was such a close fight with Dricus,” said Sean Strickland‘s coach, Eric Nicksick. ‘Tarzan’ became the middleweight champion of the world when he stunned the world by defeating Israel Adesanya at UFC 293. His reign as a champion was fun as he never really cared about his status. However, at UFC 297, Dricus Du Plessis defeated the Las Vegas, Nevada native to claim the belt for himself by way of a split decision.

Sean Stri͏c͏klan͏d’s match against Dr͏icus ͏Du͏ Pl͏e͏ssi͏s was ͏closer ͏t͏han͏ ma͏n͏y͏ expec͏ted. At one point, the entire MM͏A͏ community believed that ‘Tarzan’ had won the ͏fig͏ht͏͏. However, when the victor w͏a͏s ͏announc͏ed͏͏,͏ ͏the e͏n͏tire͏ MMA frater͏n͏ity was sh͏ocked. Regardless, since then, Strickland has been calling out the administration to provide him with another chance for redemption and it appears that Dana White has heard his plea.

Sean Strickland ousts Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev to be the number one contender for the middleweight title

This weekend, the middleweight title will be on the line as Dricus Du Plessis finally defends his title against Israel Adesanya. Their clash was supposed to happen a year ago; however, fate intertwined and it took exactly a year for them to be ready to fight. Regardless, as the fighters prepare themselves to face each other at UFC 305, the entire middleweight division is waiting for the announcement of the winner. Well, the entire UFC community thought that the winner of Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev would be the next in line for the 185 lbs title fight but Dana White appears to have stunned them all.

Robert Whittaker is on a two-fight winning streak, while Khamzat Chimaev remains undefeated in his MMA career. Fans expected that one of them would be given a title shot, but the reality is a bit different. Dana White in his latest press conference, announced that Sean Strickland will be getting the next title fight, “He is right; he is the number one in the world. He deserves the fight if that happens, but you know, you never know what can happen or how these fights could play out,” said Dana White.

He further added, “But what I did say on Jim Rome was that we have a lot of fun things happening in the middleweight division coming, and yeah, Strickland deserves it.”

The Las Vegas, Nevada native defeated Paulo Costa at UFC 298 to get back to the winning column after his defeat against Dricus Du Plessis. After the victory, Strickland emphasized that he wouldn’t budge until he got a title shot from the administration as his clash against ‘StillKnocks’ had some bogus judging.Interestingly, even Eric Nicksick believes that Strickland actually won that fight.

Eric Nicksick believes Strickland should be the next for the title fight

Eric ͏Ni͏cksi͏ck, Sean Strickland’s c͏oac͏h, recently dis͏cussed ͏Strickland’s loss at UFC 29͏7. ͏He mentioned͏ that Strickland will be returning to ͏theOctagon at the end of 2024. Nicksick emphasize͏d that Stri͏ckland deserves a champ͏ionship title shot for his next f͏ight, es͏pecially given ͏his domin͏ant perform͏ance agains͏t ͏Paul͏o Costa i͏n his ͏last ͏bout.

“He dominated Izzy. I think if Izzy wins that fight that’s an easy rematch Izzy’s gonna want to get that revenge. If Dricus wins you think [he will] 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,” said Nicksick in his conversation with ‘The MMAHour’

Well, with White’s confession, it’s now clear that Strickland is more favorable for a championship match than Khamzat Chimaev. What’s your take on the statement? State your thoughts in the comments below.