Despite falling at the title-eliminator hurdle in anticipation of a middleweight title fight with current champion, Israel Adesanya last summer, Sean Strickland claims that a fight with the Nigerian-Kiwi most definitely needs to happen if he defeats Abusupiyan Magomedov in their upcoming UFC Vegas 76 headliner in July.
Strickland, the current #7 ranked middleweight contender, had enjoyed a stunning seven-fight winning run through division contenders up until last summer, dropping a thunderous first round KO loss to future middleweight champion, Alex Pereira in their championship-eliminator during International Fight Week.
In the time since, Strickland has suffered a close, debated decision loss to Jared Cannonier in a short-notice main event headliner toward the end of last year, before taking a dominant decision win of his own over Nassourdine Imavov in another impromptu headliner, this time at the light heavyweight limit.