Dana White wants to give Israel Adesanya immediate rematch, Daniel Cormier disagrees

The narrative after a new champion is crowned is always surrounding the rematch. History has dictated that the champion, especially long-standing ones, will get a crack at the new champion for their first title defense (unless you're Aljamain Sterling of course).

And that seems to be the narrative that the UFC president is sticking with when it comes to UFC 293's upset. Sean Strickland went against all odds and defeated Israel Adesanys to win the UFC middleweight title, in a performance that shocked many fans.

“There are a million things that could go wrong," White said of Adesanya's performance during the UFC 293 post-fight press conference. "Some days you wake up and you’re just not there, man. It’s just not there. He looked bone-dry tonight, standing up really tall. He looked very slow. He looked like he couldn’t get off at all. Even in the fifth round when everybody knew he needed a knockout to win the fight, there was no sense of urgency to try to finish the fight. So I don’t know if he’s hurt or if tonight’s the night.”

And those are all the reasons why he thinks Adesanya should get a rematch.

“I think you do the rematch, absolutely,” White said. “The rematch is interesting. That could be the thing, too. When you think about you’re going into the Pereira fight, such a big fight, and you’ve been in there with this guy so many times, and then you overlook Strickland. You come in and I don’t know. I don’t know the answers to these questions, but Israel does, and I’m looking forward to hearing it.”

Adesanya didn't answer questions from the media, only offering a quick statement before handing the microphone over to his coach Eugene Bareman who said that if they fought Stickland tomorrow, Adesanya would win.

“There was an alternate kind of universe where Israel performs his poorest or poorly where Sean could win, and I’m sitting in that universe right now," he said during the post-fight presser. "Training camp was great. I’m not going to make any excuses in regard to that. Leading up to the fight was great, sparring partners, everything. All the technical things that have to do with the camp were perfect. No excuses there.”

Daniel Cormier thinks the middleweight 'division needs to move on' after Israel Adesanya defeat

But there were others who disagreed with an immediate title shot, one of those people is former two-division champion Daniel Cormier.

“The last time Izzy lost, all we could speak about was he should be next again,” Cormier said during the post-event wrap-up (h/t MMA Fighting). “I don’t think that this time. I don’t think he should fight for a belt next time. I don’t think he should get an automatic rematch. I think the division needs to move on a little bit.”

Adesanya had just regained his title after immediately rematching Alex Pereira.