Dricus Du Plessis provided a detailed reaction to his UFC 296 physical altercation with Sean Strickland.
On January 20, Dricus Du Plessis will have an opportunity to become the middleweight champion when he faces Sean Strickland in the UFC 297 main event. Despite their fight being barely a month away, the two top-tier 185-pound fighters couldn’t wait to throw punches.
Earlier this week, things became personal between Du Plessis and Strickland when the former brought up the latter’s traumatic childhood during the UFC seasonal press conference.
Since then, the reigning middleweight king has been visibly angry, leading to a physical altercation on Saturday night.
Dricus Du Plessis saying he’ll beat Sean Strickland like his dad did pic.twitter.com/JXgPpJwCsj
— Benny P 🇦🇺 (@Bendaman2001) December 16, 2023
At UFC 296, Du Plessis and Strickland were shockingly sat two rows apart while watching the fights. Following a brief verbal exchange, Strickland jumped over and attacked Du Plessis, leading to a brawl that required security to separate them.
Shortly after, Du Plessis joined Megan Olivi for a quick interview backstage and had this to say about the situation:
“I’m 5-0 in the T-Mobile Arena and tonight it officially became 6-0, so I’m happy with that, getting my money’s worth at the show. It’s probably not a good example, but, you know, here we are, things happen. Nobody got hurt, all is good.”
Du Plessis followed up by assuring Olivi he wasn’t concerned about Strickland’s hurt feelings:
“I don’t really care how he feels. I don’t care about him being triggered. He goes and he says whatever he wants and he’s like, ‘I can say whatever I want.’ Now there’s one thing that’s a soft spot, a trigger for him, and now we’re not allowed to say it. If you want to dish it out, you have to be able to take it. But, yeah, the fact that he’s triggered, I don’t give a d*mn about that.”
Watch Dricus Du Plessis’ entire interview with Megan Olivi below:
Dricus Du Plessis was surprised how quickly Sean Strickland was “triggered”
Sean Strickland is known for being unpredictable with what he will say next.
As a result, some people, including Dricus Du Plessis, were surprised at how frustrated he was by what Du Plessis said. Meanwhile, others believe ‘Stillknocks’ crossed the line by bringing up how Strickland was abused growing up.
During the previously mentioned interview, Du Plessis had this to say about Strickland’s alleged lack of composure:
“Right now, he needs to get calm in his head. He needs to gain his composure. I know I’m not the champ yet, so I shouldn’t really be giving the champ advice but that would be my advice. Gather your composure, be calm, you make mistakes when you’re not calm. I’m calm as a cucumber, cool as a cucumber. I’m feeling absolutely great.”
Du Plessis concluded by saying:
“The fact that he’s triggered only plays into my advantage. I can’t believe how easy it was to mentally trigger him…He’s just bashing everybody, ranting about everything on everybody. One little sentence, and the man loses his man, shows you how easily mentally he will be broken.”
At UFC 297, Sean Strickland looks to secure his first middleweight title defense since shockingly dethroning Israel Adesanya in September.
Meanwhile, Dricus Du Plessis has established a 6-0 UFC record since making his promotional debut in October 2020, with five wins coming inside the distance.
The full incident between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at #UFC296 tonight.
Bring on #UFC297 in January! pic.twitter.com/HQt0Uj1jiv
— UFC (@ufc) December 17, 2023
