UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland says everything from setting guidelines about trash talk that is off-limits to violating nearly every restriction in a profane and insensitive manner.
“There's nothing I'd rather do more than kill someone in the ring,” Strickland told reporters in 2021, in a wildly insane exchange with the media.
Admitting that “ring” actually refers to the cage, Strickland's typical fight over the past four years since his return from a motorcycle accident has been a kill-or-be-killed bout for a martial arts athlete. Does not resemble.
Dricus du Plessis, on the other hand, plays the role better.
So when the South African middleweight, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Sunday, faces Strickland on Saturday at UFC 297 in Toronto (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ pay-per-view), the champion will be He will be facing a fighter who needs to go to the final tournament. That was less distance in his career than Strickland covered last year en route to winning the belt.
“He's there to win. He doesn't really care about the entertainment value,” du Plessis said in a recent video call with the Post. “I hit a lot of pads in training, I hit a lot of slams. I train a lot of submissions. When I'm thinking of hitting pads, I'm not thinking of touching anyone. I’m thinking about knocking him out. … I’m always going to try to finish it.”
Du Plessis (20-2, 19th place) has finished each of his last three fights against ranked middleweights in the second or third round, so this is just a void. It's not a story.
After forcing a tap to the face crank on Darren Till at Fight of the Night in December 2022, du Plessis called for a corner stop against Derek Brunson in March, defeating the former 185-pound He became the second man to (T)KO champion Robert Whittaker. July.
An equal parts opportunist, du Plessis boasts nine (T)KO wins and 10 submission wins, and has lost eight titles since leaving the welterweight division when he was still not signed by the UFC. He has won all his matches.
By contrast, since his two-year hiatus following his accident, Strickland has completed seven of 10 fights, including five of six five-round main event bouts.
Du Plessis wouldn't paint Strickland (28-5, 15 finishes) as a boring fighter — the champion has earned Performance of the Night bonuses three times in the last four years. The challenger portrays his own charm, allowing him to have his own moment. A style that fans will appreciate.
“If you've been watching my games, show me one boring game I've had in my entire career,” Du Plessis said. “…It won't be a boring fight, because I won't allow it. I don't have a style for boring fights. Never. Never.”
Might as well throw in the first match between du Plessis and Strickland while the scores are being tallied.
This initial clash is not officially recorded as an impromptu skirmish between the two occurred just a month ago during the pay-per-view portion of UFC 296, just yards from the Octagon.
At T-Mobile Arena, Strickland was seated several rows in front of du Plessis — a decision UFC president and CEO Dana White called “stupid” and he took full responsibility for it — and , after exchanging heated words, Strickland calmly guided the seated person out of the way before escalating into a furious attack.
To hear du Plessis tell the story leading up to the scuffle: “I was the only one around.'' [Strickland] It made him feel uneasy. ”
Still, du Plessis did not expect to spark the ensuing scuffle, which he classified as “unexpected” rather than a bad punch.
“I never thought this would happen,” said Du Plessis, who arrived at his seat just before the main card began, about 60 to 90 minutes before the two fighters met. “I'm the middleweight champion of the world. Often things happen and we act according to the situation, and that's exactly what happened.”
Fortunately, neither suffered enough damage to derail plans for combat in Canada.
Du Plessis noted that Strickland landed “a couple of good elbows to the head and some good strikes,” but downplayed its effectiveness and the power it would have in the hands of his next opponent.
“I thought maybe someone who wasn't a professional fighter was busy hitting me,” Du Plessis said with a jab. “Maybe it was one of his friends because he didn't feel like he was a world champion.”
Even though White would call himself a “hole” for creating such a situation, it's easy to see how he would do so on his way to the bank with a laugh.
The unexpected matchup only heightened the profile of a match that wasn't necessarily the most anticipated championship matchup beforehand.
Du Plessis acknowledged that it was fair to think that UFC 297 could benefit from increased pay-per-view sales as a result, but for decades the late John・I wondered if the promotion, which had erased Sen. McCain's image, would want that kind of attention. “Human cockfighting” label.
“We are athletes now,” du Plessis says, noting how far the sport has come from the no-holds-barred days. “People look up to us and we're all good human beings. We're different than any athlete in the world.
“There are two sides to it. There are good sides to pay-per-views, but as you can see, our middleweight champion of the world is jumping over a chair and punching someone in the crowd. If he wanted to press charges, he could have done so. He wouldn't have been able to come to Canada and play this fight.”
Not that Du Plessis had any intention of involving the authorities.
“Am I the one pressing charges? No, that's not happening,” du Plessis says coldly. “I wasn't raised that way. It's not our way.”
