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…
