Following the latest episode of Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday, the newly appointed CEO of the UFC took the opportunity to praise middleweight champion Sean Strickland (28-5) in response to some questions on the subject.
A new middleweight king is crowned! 👑 #UFC293 pic.twitter.com/pRfG8dEUnn
— UFC (@ufc) September 10, 2023
This past Saturday at UFC 293, Strickland defeated two-time champion Israel Adesanya by way of a clear and uncontested unanimous decision. Strickland was a massive underdog heading into the championship main event bout, and White believes that this, coupled with his entertaining attitude, is one of the reasons many fans have latched onto the unsuspecting champion.
“Let me tell you this: So on Instagram, I have 8.3 million followers. Me wrapping the belt on him did 16 million views. DC was telling me on the flight back, he did interviews with him on his YouTube channel, and it was the biggest he’s ever done or something like that.
“If you saw, there was a lot of hype around Strickland early. He lost a couple, hype kind of died down, he came back, and he won the world title, and people are fascinated again. I think people love an underdog. He was such a big underdog in that fight, he came out and won. People were saying, ‘Oh, don’t take away the fact that Strickland won the fight,’ good for him. I love that sh*t. I love the support he’s getting, it’s great.”
“It is what it is, we obviously put him in that position, and he went in and delivered and won the fight, and he’s the champ now. You know what you’re getting when you get him. This is no surprise, no shock. Good for him.”