“I feel like the guy didn’t even try,” the American said at the post-event press conference. “There were moments where he was throwing punches and I was thinking, ‘Am I fighting an amateur, what the hell is going on?’ I thought I was going to be carted out of here bloody and with a concussion, but I feel relatively good, aside from a couple bumps and bruises. I expected this to be a lot harder.”
According to Strickland, once he stepped into the octagon he forgot about the plan for the fight, which was to fight the champion.
“The plan for the fight was actually to fight – that’s all we’ve been doing in training camp, but when you’re a little autistic, you just do what you do. I consider myself one of the best percussionists in the world, after all. When you dance in the ring, you’re always one punch away from a knockout, but I can spar with any world champion boxer and take them over. I’m a great wrestler and could probably move him because he’s tired as a dog, but I like to fight in the stand-up, so with a shield, or on the shield.”
The new UFC champion also revealed what he said to his opponent in the final seconds of the fight.
“I called him Chinese, I said, ‘Chinese, let’s fight!’ But he’s really Chinese – he is. Here’s the thing – Izzy is a goddamn legend, and I don’t take pleasure in making fun of him, but he comes out to fight in the colors of the Chinese flag. What the hell is he thinking?”
As for his future plans, the American doesn’t know yet what the future holds for him.
“I’m sure Dana White is thinking right now, ‘How did we let this happen? How did we let this underdog get the belt? We screwed up!’ The best part is that this belt means nothing to me – yes, I like it and I won it, but at the end of the day, I just love the sport. What’s next for me? I’m going to go back to training. Everyone will congratulate me, I’ll thank them in return, and I’ll just move on. This gold shiny thing doesn’t make me happy. I don’t really know what makes me happy myself.”
Recall that the middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland went the full distance and ended with the American winning by unanimous decision with a score of 49-46 three times, with the Nigerian being knocked down in the first round.