Dana White explains why Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa are fighting unranked fighters next
UFC president Dana White has explained why Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa have been booked to fight unranked fighters.
Sean Strickland is set to return to the octagon on July one to headline a UFC Fight Night against Abus Magomedov. The latter has fought just once in the UFC so far and is currently an unranked middleweight fighter.
On the flip side, Paulo Costa will make his ninth octagon appearance at UFC 291 against Ikram Aliskerov. Aliskerov was most recently seen in action on May 6 where he beat Phil Hawes after winning his contract on Dana White's Contender Series (DWCS).
While both fights seem interesting, they have been heavily criticized by MMA fanatics who believe it doesn't make sense for both Strickland and Costa to fight unranked opponents.
During the UFC Vegas 73 post-fight press conference Dana White was asked if the UFC chose to book these fights in an effort to freshen things up in the middleweight division. To which he replied:
"What we try to do is, obviously when you have a division, Costa hasn't fought in a long time, you know what I mean? Strickland's been fighting a lot, so yes, the answer is yes, we like to bring guys in and see where they're at and see how they, obviously, the dude's Paulo Costa is fighting is tough as nails, you don't know how good some guys are until you get them in there into the top 15."
Watch the video below (18:50):
Sean Strickland's coach opens up about a potential clash against Israel Adesanya
Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya have had quite the history. While the two haven't fought in the octagon, they have engaged in a war of words on multiple occasions making a potential matchup between the two highly exciting.
Speaking about the same during a recent interview with Submission Radio, coach Eric Nicksick of Xtreme Couture MMA claimed that he understands Israel Adesanya's fighting style and that a fight between the middleweight champion and Strickland would be quite interesting. He said:
"Surprisingly, Sean is very technical, andehe's very bright when it comes to the game. We're really going to have to be on our Ps and Qs if we ever get that Israel fight and really understand it, because I have a pretty good idea of what Israel's approach would be in attacking us, and you know we're going to have to be on our Ps and Qs when we fight a guy like that."
Watch the interview below: