Strickland refused to fight Whittaker.

Sean Strickland, former UFC middleweight champion, refused to fight Robert Whittaker. This was announced by the manager of the Australian Titus Day.

"Obviously Shawn has a different strategy, sitting back and waiting it out. He probably has a legitimate claim to a title fight, but Rob prefers to fight - that's how he makes his living. After the Riyadh fight, they asked literally the same day if Rob wanted to fight Shawn in Perth and we immediately said yes. Sean probably said no and that was the end of it."