Daniel Cormier: Sean Strickland told me he expects Israel Adesanya rematch to be harder

According to Daniel Cormier, Sean Strickland didn’t expect to have his way with Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.

Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) scored a massive upset win when he dethroned middleweight champion Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) by unanimous decision in this past Saturday’s UFC 293 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Strickland knocked Adesanya down late in Round 1, and all three judges scored the fight four rounds to one in his favor.

Strickland himself felt like he was competing against an “amateur” when he was in there with Adesanya, and Cormier says the newly crowned champion reiterated that to him when they ran into each other at the airport.

“We sat down and we talked for a minute and I asked him, ‘When you were in there, what did you feel?’ He was like, ‘I honestly couldn’t believe what was happening,'” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “He couldn’t believe what was happening.

“He couldn’t grip what was happening because he was not only beating Adesanya, but he was beating Adesanya in a way that he couldn’t have even anticipated. He was like, ‘DC, I promise you, I didn’t think that the fight was going to be like that. I was having my way with him. I don’t understand.'”

UFC CEO Dana White wants to see a rematch between Strickland and Adesanya. And if that does happen next, Cormier revealed that Strickland told him he doesn’t expect to have as easy of a time if they run things back.

“One thing he did say that was very key: In the rematch – because I imagine there’s going to be a rematch – he goes, ‘I think it’ll be harder,'” Cormier said. “He thinks he might have got overlooked by Adesanya.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.