"He sold himself for a dollar" - Sean Strickland makes big promise to the USA ahead of UFC 293 fight against 'Chinese sl**' Israel Adesanya

Sean Strickland is scheduled to take part in his first-ever UFC title fight at UFC 293 on September 10. He will take on middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya in a bout that's quickly developed its own narrative due to the two men's past and, in particular, Strickland's comments about 'The Last Stylebender.'

Ahead of his bout with Adesanya, Strickland filmed with a video with the Full Violence page on Instagram. In a snippet of the video, which is set for a release on Wednesday, Sean Strickland promised to defeat Israel Adesanya and bring the middleweight title back to the United States.

Throughout the clip, and indeed the entire buildup of their fight, Strickland has repeatedly referred to his foe as a Chinese man. This time, however, he deepened his verbal attack by also describing Adesanya as someone who sells himself for money:

"I'm fighting Izzy the Chinese man. You guys, and here's the thing, I always call Izzy the Chinese champion, but Izzy's not the Chinese champion. Izzy is a modern-day man. Izzy is a Chinese sl*t, he sold himself for a dollar, and you guys, we're gonna bring that belt back to America."

Sean Strickland's comments about Israel Adesanya being Chinese and allegedly selling out for money are likely references to a commercial that the middleweight champion took part in, wherein he claimed to represent China and be Chinese. But why has 'Tarzan' made it his mission to attack Adesanya in such a manner?

It appears to be his response to Israel Adesanya's anger over Dricus du Plessis' past comments about Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman's authenticity as African champions.

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How has Israel Adesanya responded to Sean Strickland's comments?

While the pre-fight press conference will almost certainly take on a more heated flavor once the two men are face to face, Israel Adesanya has kept his composure, thus far. He hasn't directly responded to any of Strickland's accusations. Instead, he's taken to posting memes poking fun at himself for his past comments.

He recently uploaded a video on Twitter of himself in a post-fight interview. However, the video is overlayed with a voice-over of Zhang Wheili, China's first-ever UFC champion, speaking in Mandarin. Adesanya captioned the video with a joke about needing to improve his Mandarin.