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Sean Strickland does not appear to think all that highly of UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya before their title fight at UFC 293.
Strickland and Adesanya, who are set to fight Saturday night in Sydney, Australia, sat across from one another on Thursday for the show’s pre-fight press conference.
And they didn’t hold back when it came to sharing their feelings about one another, especially Strickland.
“Nobody likes f—– Izzy. He’s a f—— cringe-lord,” Strickland said of his opponent. “Everything that guy does makes you f—— wince. Like, did he really do that? Is he really race-baiting Dricus [Du Plessis] right now? How does this play out for you? The thing about Izzy, when somebody sucks to that degree, it’s pretty f—— easy to make fun of them.
“This f—— cringe-lord. F—— A. Even talking about him makes me want to go f—— take a shower. I feel dirty.”
Strickland, who is just 2-2 in his last four fights, comes into the title fight with Adesanya as a massive underdog. But he made sure to note at the press conference that he’s more than just a side show with a big mouth.
“It’s going to be a f——war,” Strickland said. “I do think people forget how good of a fighter I am because of how much I talk, but we’ll find out on Sunday. To the death. I run my mouth so much, I think people forget I can fight.”
Despite all of Strickland’s talk, Adesanya doesn’t seem particularly concerned.
“He’s an idiot,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting. I’m not going to lose to an idiot. He says he’s not going to lose to a guy that jerks off to cartoons or paints his nails. Well, I’m going to paint my nails for that fight and I’m going to knock him out with my painted nails.”