Dana White showed interest in a potential rematch between Sean Strickland and Israel Adesanya following Strickland’s victory at UFC 293. Strickland, who was considered a 7/1 underdog, delivered an upset by defeating Adesanya via a unanimous decision in Sydney, Australia.
While an immediate rematch seemed improbable due to the fact the two went 5 rounds, Dana White has hinted at the possibility of a rematch.
White stated, “I think you do the rematch, absolutely. I mean, the rematch is interesting. That could be the thing, too. When you think about it, you’re going into the [Alex] Pereira fight, such a big fight, and you’ve been in there with this guy so many times, and then you overlook Strickland. You come in, and I don’t know. I don’t know the answers to these questions, but Israel does, and I’m looking forward to hearing it.”
White further emphasized the magnitude of the upset, remarking, “If you think about Australia, the biggest upsets ever in the men’s and the women’s division [Holly Holm beating Ronda Rousey] have happened in Australia.”
But White might’ve had a change of hearts. During the recent presser for the Contender series he walked back his comments saying:
“Well, I think if you remember that night, people said, well, what do you think? You think it’s rematch? I said, The rematch sounds great. And I remember that I saw the stupid f**king s**t that was written, you know, by all these stupid f**king websites, you know, never once did I say, Yes, we’re going to f**king do this rematch.”
“I said, No, the rematch. So, you know, we’ll see what happens. There’s obviously lots of options out there and we’ll see what happens. But yes, I’m still not opposed to an Israel rematch. We’ll see how it goes. “