Former UFC champion Israel Adesanya calls Aussie MMA fans ‘racist’ for supporting Sean Strickland during title bout in Sydney

Israel Adesanya has launched a stunning attack on Australian MMA fans who supported American Sean Strickland in their title fight at UFC 293, describing them as ‘racist’.

The former two-time middleweight champion, 34, posted one of the most shocking UFC results in recent history when he lost a one-sided decision to Strickland at the September 10 event in Sydney.

Strickland stunned the MMA world with the result and seemed to have a large portion of the crowd on his side during the exciting fight.

The American star also did a lot to win over Aussie fans in the run-up to the event, wearing a Crocodile Dundee-style hat and a t-shirt with ‘For the people, by the people’ printed on it.

Strickland received strong support from Australian fans during the Sydney fight against Adesanya

While he appeared in a recent episode of The MMA hourAdesanya told host Ariel Helwani he wasn’t surprised by the support for Strickland in Australia.

“No, they’re racist,” Adesanya said.

“I think it was me, her, it wasn’t my week. It was just him.

‘He knows how to give in. He’s a great politician, I’ll put it this way. It was just his week, his moment to shine, and what a gentleman!”

Helwani asked the same question to former Australian middleweight champion Rob Whittaker last year, and The Reaper wasn’t at all shocked that Strickland was embraced Down Under.

“No, I would have been surprised otherwise,” Whittaker told The MMA Hour with a laugh.

“I don’t know, and everyone knows I’m not friends with Izzy. I don’t hate him, but I’m not friends with him in any way. We just rub each other the wrong way. And he seems to mislead a lot of people.

“And I’m going to say, Sean, you know, he wore the [Crocodile Dundee] hat. He wore the hat. That is something. Maybe that’s all it takes.’

The controversial American convinced Australian fans by donning a Crocodile Dundee-style hat

Adesanya said Strickland is a good politician and panders to Australian MMA fans

Strickland shocked everyone by winning the world title match by unanimous decision

“Everyone’s done crazy things, you know? I think Sean has been very offensive to a lot of people, right? But not for us [in Australia] yet,’

“Maybe we’ve been out of sight a little bit, so maybe that played a role. But something else is the fans and the guys who showed up on Sunday [at UFC 293]they like to see hard fights and they like to see good fights.

“Sean went out there and gave it his all and suffered one of the biggest upsets in the middleweight division.”