04 September 2023 , 16:54
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UFC champion Israel Adesanya has mocked Sean Strickland for being an "insecure b****" when the pair first crossed paths last year.
Adesanya defends his middleweight title against top contender Strickland in the main event of UFC 293 this Saturday in Sydney. 'The Last Stylebender' lost his belt last November when he was knocked out by Alex Pereira, but he avenged the defeat by stopping the Brazilian to reclaim his title in April.
Strickland has been mocking Adesanya since the pair first met at the UFC 276 press conference ahead of their respective fights last July. Adesanya said he saw Strickland backstage before the event started and had a somewhat friendly encounter with him, but things changed just moments later when Strickland launched a foul-mouthed tirade at him.
"Sean's very insecure," Adesanya told The Mac Life. "You only have one first impression and if you want to be a tough guy, make it the first impression. First impression, he's a b****. I didn't even mean to make him a b**** because I was like 'Hey, what's up buddy how are you doing?' then he was like 'Oh don't do me like you did your boy [Paulo Costa]'.
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"We get on stage and he's like 'I'll come there right now', bro where was this energy five minutes ago backstage? When he tries to do all that s*** to me now, it doesn't work. I can't knock this guy out with these nails, I need to make them pretty so I'm going to get a mobile nail salon come to my room then I'm going to break my nails on my face.
"The guy is insecure, he's very insecure. I've dealt with him behind the cameras and he covers it up with a lot of stuff, but that's not for me that's his problem. I know who I am and I've done the work for myself. I have to knock him out just so I can do a TikTok dance over his grave."
Adesanya thinks Strickland will struggle to fight in Australia for the first time because of the time difference in America. The middleweight champion is no stranger to fighting down under as he won the middleweight belt in 2019 by knocking out Robert Whittaker in front of 57,000 fans in Melbourne.
The Nigerian-born Kiwi sarcastically told Strickland he will help him with any sleeping problems by adding: "I'm built for this, used to this and ready for this. He won't be able to sleep because he'll be up all night thinking about the fight. By fight time, I'll help him go to sleep."