Sean Strickland is the new middleweight champion of the UFC after beating Israel Adesanya via decision during their Saturday clash in Australia. Sure enough, however, Strickland admitted it wasn't easy.

Strickland snatched the middleweight belt away from Adesanya after all the judges scored the fight 49-46. It was definitely a massive upset, but there's no denying that it was a well-earned victory  for Strickland. He almost ended the fight late in the first round when he dropped Izzy to the canvas with a clean straight.

Tarzan took advantage of it and unleashed a barrage of punches, though Adesanya was able to survive until the buzzer sounded. At that point, however, it was all Strickland as he controlled the whole bout with his clean and accurate punches as well as defense.

After the decision for the UFC 293 main event was announced, Sean Strickland made sure to give his respect to Israel Adesanya. The 32-year-old mixed martial artist pointed out that he felt “down” at times during the bout, but the Sydney crowd fired him up.

“You guys, you know Izzy is a bad mother f**ker, you guys. You don't fight that guy with how many highlight-reel knockout? He's beaten the majority of my friends [and] he's beaten them pretty easily. And man, I was even down on myself at times, but I’ve got to thank the fans of Australia. You guys motivated me,” Strickland added, via Yahoo Sports.

It was definitely a fight to remember for Strickland. Now, he's the new middleweight champion.

It will be interesting to see if there will be a rematch between the two, but hopefully, Adesanya will be able to put up a better performance than what he showed on Saturday.