Joe Rogan dismisses idea Israel Adesanya underestimated Sean Strickland in title loss: “He’s just that good”

UFC commentator Joe Rogan believes that Sean Strickland is just that good ahead of his first middleweight title defense.

‘Tarzan’ is currently slated to make his first UFC title defense tomorrow night, in Toronto, Canada. In the pay-per-view main event, Sean Strickland will face the rising South African, Dricus du Plessis. ‘Stillknocks’ earned the title opportunity with a knockout win over Robert Whittaker last July.

For Sean Strickland, the bout will be his first since a victory over Israel Adesanya in September. At UFC 293 last year, the former champion was dominated. In round one, Strickland scored a knockdown, and he never looked back. After 25 minutes of action, the reign of ‘The Last Stylebender’ was over.

In the months since that night, some, have speculated that the loss was more on Israel Adesanya. Following the defeat, the former champion announced plans to take a hiatus, as he was mentally drained from fighting. Even Sean Strickland himself opined that his former opponent mentally crumbled on fight night.

However, UFC commentator Joe Rogan doesn’t agree with him. Speaking on a recent edition of his podcast alongside rising middleweight Joe Pyfer, he previewed Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis. Along with that, the analyst also discussed the champion’s star-making performance against Israel Adesanya last September.

In the eyes of Joe Rogan, Israel Adesanya didn’t underestimate Sean Strickland. Instead, the middleweight great just ran into the wrong man, on the wrong night.

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Image via: @joerogan on Instagram

Joe Rogan reflects on Sean Strickland’s win over Israel Adesanya at UFC 293
“I was very impressed.” Joe Rogan stated on a recent edition of his podcast, ahead of Sean Strickland’s first title defense at UFC 297. “He’s a big guy man, there’s a thing about being confident and delusional. Or, not respecting your opponent and you know, I don’t know if that’s what happened with [Israel] Adesanya and Strickland. I just think Strickland’s that good, I really do think [so].”

He continued, “Right, he never gets tired… I’m very interested to see who prevails. The Abus Magomedov fight, I think that fight was one of the most impressive fights of Strickland’s fights. Abus comes out in that first round like a bat out of hell. But, he just gassed out, and he gassed out at the end of the first round. I think Abus was just so used to taking guys out, he thought he could just put it on Sean, and he was hitting Sean with f*cking fire. That dude’s good man, but Sean just wilted him, just wilted him.”

“He doesn’t get tired.” Joe Rogan concluded his praise of Sean Strickland. “When you have a guy who spars as much as Sean. The bulk of Sean’s training is sparring, and he spars hard. He’s so accustomed to that, that’s really like a fight all of the time.”

What do you make of these comments from Joe Rogan? Do you agree with his assessment?