Robert Whittaker not surprised Australian fans got behind Sean Strickland at UFC 293

Robert Whittaker was not surprised to see the Australian crowd get behind Sean Strickland against Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.

Strickland met Adesanya in the pay-per-view (PPV) main event for the latter’s then-middleweight crown. When it was all said and done, Strickland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in mixed martial arts (MMA) history, defeating “Stylebender” via unanimous decision. During fight week, Strickland actually garnered a lot of support from the Australian crowd.

Even during the fight, the crowd began to cheer for Strickland, who was clearly getting the better of Adesanya during the contest. It was quite an interesting turn of events given Adesanya is a New Zealand resident. Australian and former 185-pound champion Robert Whittaker, however, was not surprised by this.

As he explained on The MMA Hour, Whittaker believes Strickland, who has a habit of rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, hasn’t gotten to that point just yet with the Australian fanbase.

“No, I would’ve been surprised the other way,” Whittaker said (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t know, and everybody knows I’m not friends with Izzy. I don’t hate the guy, but I’m not friends with him by any means. We just rub each other the wrong way. And he seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way. And I’m going to say, Sean, you know, he was wearing the [Crocodile Dundee] hat. He was wearing the hat. That’s something. Maybe that’s all it takes.

“Everyone has done silly things, you know? I guess Sean’s been, I think, very offensive to a lot of people right? But not to us [in Australia] yet,. Maybe we’ve been out of the crosshairs a little bit, so maybe that played a role. But another thing is, like, the fans and the guys that showed up on Sunday [at UFC 293], they like seeing hard fights and they like seeing good fights. Sean went out there and gave his all and had one of the biggest upsets in the middleweight division.”

Whittaker is no stranger to Adesanya. It was the Nigerian-born striker who defeated Whittaker back in 2019 via knockout, ending “The Reaper’s” reign as champion. They’d rematch in 2022, where Adesanya again defeated him, this time via unanimous decision. In his last outing, Whittaker was stopped by rising contender Dricus du Plessis in the second round this past July. His next opponent has yet to be determined.

As for Strickland and Adesanya, it remains to be seen who the pair will fight next after their title bout last month. However, UFC president Dana White has suggested he’d like to see an immediate rematch.