Outside Source
Whittaker is eyeing a matchup against Strickland next, preferably in his home country of Australia. However, Whittaker predicted that Strickland might not want to travel to Australia, considering his history with the country’s government.
Advertisement
“I want to fight in Sydney,” Whittaker said on the MMArcade Podcast. “I would love to fight Strickland. I have been wanting that fight for a while. I think it’ll be a good fight… I don’t think he’ll come all the way to Australia though. I don’t think he has the best rapport with Australian government.”
Whittaker’s prediction was accurate. When an X account called Agent MMA conveyed Whittaker’s callout to Strickland, the American refused to fight outside of his home country again.
“Never fighting out of America again lol,” Strickland wrote.
Strickland Has Mixed Results Fighting Outside the U.S.
Fighting outside America has been a bittersweet experience for Strickland. Strickland dethroned Israel Adesanya to win the middleweight title at UFC 293 in Sydney in 2023. However, the former middleweight champ lost his title via a controversial split decision against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in Toronto last year. Strickland then failed to regain his title in a rematch against du Plessis at UFC 312 in Sydne, earlier this year. Strickland also made a series of outrageous comments against the Australian government and media going into UFC 312.
Strickland sandwiched a decision win over Paulo Costa between his title losses against Du Plessis. Meanwhile, Whittaker is coming off consecutive losses against Khamzat Chimaev and Reinier de Ridder.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
Help support MMACrazies.com when you shop Amazon by starting your online Amazon shopping at MMACrazies.com/recommends/amazon. You are not charged extra, but we receive a small and very helpful commission on everything you purchase. Thanks for thinking of us every time you shop at Amazon.
