Dricus Du Plessis has no regrets on what was said to Sean Strickland.
Bad blood continues to boil as we enter UFC 297 fight week. In the Canadian headliner, reigning champ Strickland defends his title against the daring Du Plessis. The fight’s build-up started off with respect between the two, but that all quickly went south as Strickland and Du Plessis traded shots at the UFC’s seasonal press conference last month and then some more in a brawl at UFC 296.
‘I’m Not Gonna Be Bullied’
Strickland hit Du Plessis and his coach with homophobic slurs and the South African fighter ended up retaliating, citing he was going to beat Strickland worse than his dad did when he was a child. ‘Tarzan’ was not a fan of DDP using his childhood trauma for trash talk.
For Du Plessis, he was just giving the outspoken champion a taste of his own medicine.
“He came at me, and I’m never gonna let that slide,” Du Plessis said on The MMA Hour. “I’ll always respect you if you respect me. I’m gonna treat you the way you treat me. I’m not gonna be bullied. Does he think he can bully me? That ain’t happening. I’ve never been bullied, and I won’t. I’ll never let that slide. So, he tried to to to bully me and I got him some of his own medicine. I just did it better.
“I don’t regret anything,” Du Plessis added. “I said what I said. I didn’t enjoy what I said, but listen, you’re dishing it out, you’re gonna get it. I stand by what I said. I did not joke about it. What happened was fact. I stated facts. I didn’t joke. He joked about it in a previous interview, he joked about all of that. I didn’t joke about it. I stated the facts. It obviously had a massive effect on him.”
No More Follow-Up Shots From DDP
Despite drawing a clear reaction from Strickland, Du Plessis won’t be ‘hammering’ away at his troubled past.
“I won’t be hammering on that because it’s not necessary,” Du Plessis continued. “I got the results that I wanted. Obviously, it’s terrible that it happened to him. But, don’t project onto others what you don’t want to happen to you. That’s where it is. He disrespected me, disrespected my coach, and I won’t let that slide. So take that, now we’re on a clean page. We start over.
“It’s strictly business. It’s never personal. Nothing’s personal. I have no animosity towards him. I said what I said. What happened happened, there’s an animosity from from my side, at least. I’m here to do my business. I’m here to to win a fight.”
‘Watching A Grown Man Cry Is Not Really My Genre’
Following their war of words in December, Strickland did have a cry about his childhood trauma on a recent episode of Theo Von’s podcast. Du Plessis gives his two cents on the viral clip and why he thinks the American is a hypocrite.
UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland breaks down in Tears on the Theo Von podcast… pic.twitter.com/KThGXfsoNb
— Fight Haven (@FightHaven) January 3, 2024
“I watched some clips on it. I didn’t watch the whole interview,” Du Plessis said. “Like I said, watching a grown man cry is not really my my genre. I’m glad he got it now, I hope it’s the end of it. He had a lot to say about Khalil Rountree. He said how weak of a man Khalil was for crying. He did the exact same thing just on a bigger stage.
“The hypocrisy is what was the one area where people could lose respect for Sean Strickland because he’s always unapologetically himself. But, as soon as he got his own medicine, and as soon as he was on the receiving end for the very first time, when I got on that mic, we saw him backpedal and trying to play the sympathy card. Because he wanted sympathy. He was acting like he had that victim mentality immediately.”
Du Plessis Keeps Receipts
DDP backed it up, referencing the time Strickland made fun of fallen fighter Felipe Colares for getting killed by a bus.
“Don’t do that if you if you say the things you say. Talking about people who can’t dodge buses. Somebody who died, a fighter who died— is that not over the line?
“So, you mr. moral compass, doesn’t decide where the line is. He doesn’t have the right to decide where that line is. And now all of a sudden, the line is where he wants it to be. No. I don’t think so… Stick to your guns, stick to trying to be a tough guy. That’s what you can do.”
