Australia and New Zealand have some blistering rivalries in sports, but when it comes to MMA it’s one big happy family.
Alexander Volkanovski is 100% on the side of his teammate Israel Adesanya as “The Last Stylebender” prepares to defend his UFC middleweight title against Sean Strickland at UFC 293 on September 9th.
Not only does “The Great” think Izzy is gonna win. He believes Strickland is going down … hard.
“Obviously Sean is gonna talk, Sean is gonna try and get under his skin,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel (via Sportskeeda). “So that’s gonna make it fun. But I feel Izzy is going to really really put it on him. Especially with the talk that’s gonna happen. I think Sean Strickland is gonna definitely pay for some of the things he’s gonna say. Stylistically, I feel like he’s definitely gonna get hurt.”
Strickland hasn’t fared well in other bad stylistic match-ups. He got flatlined by Alex Pereira when they fought, and Israel Adesanya is on the same level skills wise, if not when it comes to one punch knockout power. While Adesanya doesn’t have holes in his games, there’s a perception that the way to beat him may be on the ground. Too bad Sean Strickland doesn’t believe in jiu jitsu.
While it may end up being a whomp, Volkanovski is just happy Australia gets a regional champion on the top of their latest pay-per-view card.
“I’m sure there was a few hurdles in there with Dricus [Du Plessis] not being able to fight and now Sean Strickland stepping in,” he said. “Really looking forward to this one, it’s good to have someone like myself or Izzy defending our belts here in Australia. I’m very glad that he was able to get that over the line. I think it’s a great fight for [Adesanya].”
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
