Chatter between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at Friday’s UFC 2024 Season Press Conference started out cordial.
It didn’t finish that way.
Strickland, the UFC’s essentially unexpected middleweight champ, and Du Plessis, a South African contender who has stormed through the division, face off next month in the main event of UFC 297. Friday, one day ahead of UFC 296 in Las Vegas, the UFC kicked off its first quarter 2024 promotion, with the main event players from UFC 297, 298, and 299 all in attendance.
Aside from a few moments spent focused on Sean O’Malley (who also managed to get into it with Sean Strickland), it was Strickland and Du Plessis hogging the spotlight. For better or for worse.
Initially, things were positive. “Sean’s a good fighter,” said Du Plessis, asked about the champ who was crowned this past September after a shock, short-notice upset of Israel Adesanya. “The guy came out short-notice, beat one of the best to ever do it at middleweight. And he did it in spectacular fashion, deserves all the respect he’s getting, and I think he’s a tremendous fighter and we’re going to have one heck of a fight come 20th January.”
Strickland was gracious, if colorful, in response. “Thanks. That is damn f*cking true from that man,” exclaimed Strickland. “He’s always down to die, bro. It’s going to be a f*cking war!”
Later, Du Plessis suggested Strickland hadn’t quite worked his way up the middleweight division. “It wasn’t like he was taking out number one, three, four, whatever. He got an opportunity,” noted Du Plessis. “But this is a game of opportunities. He took the opportunity, it paid off. So nothing but respect there. He got that fight on short notice, he showed up. He showed that whatever the stakes, doesn’t matter how big of a risk, he came out there and for him, that was the most important fight of his life and he made the most of that opportunity. So well done to him.”
But, warned Dricus Du Plessis, “this is not an opportunity. He’s not getting an opportunity.”
The difference between himself, and what Sean Strickland faced in Israel Adesanya, is “knockout power, firstly,” Du Plessis later stated. “And the fact that I can wrestle, I can grapple, and that I go out there to fight. I don’t go out there to win points and run around in the octagon. I go out there to fight, and that I can do better than anybody in the world.”
The South African told Cageside Press the missed opportunity to fight a bitter rival in Adesanya didn’t matter to him.
“To be honest, I don’t give a sh*t who’s holding the belt when I fight for it. I’m not here to fight Israel Adesanya, I’m not here to fight anyone. I’m here to become the world champion. That’s the only thing that matters to me. I don’t care who is holding onto that belt. As soon as Sean Strickland won that belt, my focus immediately shifted to him, and Israel Adesanya, like he is right now, became completely irrelevant.”
It was shortly after that things between champ and challenger went down hill. Strickland suggested that given they were doing to fight, they didn’t need to be friends. And he appeared to question Du Plessis’ heart, noting the South African turned down the title shot against Adesanya that he himself had capitalized on.
“Dricus had a pretty easy fight with [Robert] Whittaker, to his credit. Injury free. They offered him a world title. And he said ‘no I rolled my f*cking ankle.” As for himself, Strickland added, “I answered the f*cking call.”
“You are not world championship material. You won by fluke, and that’s the highest point in your life,” retorted Du Plessis. When Strickland claimed to have “walked through Izzy” and added he would do the same to Du Plessis, the South African fired back.
“You didn’t even finish him. That’s not walking through somebody. You know how you walk through somebody? You knock them out. You get the ref to stay ‘stop, you are going to kill this man.’ You don’t let a judge decide you winning the fight. I make the choice if I want to end the fight.”
Strickland, however, was still focused on Du Plessis turning down a short-notice title shot after his defeat of Whittaker. “He took the b*tch way out, I took the f*cking man way. Off the f*cking couch doing nothing I went and beat the best striker in the f*cking world, one of the f*cking legends in this sport. I f*cking walked through him while your b*tch ass was icing a f*cking ankle. Shut the f*ck up. Go f*ck your coach, you f*ggot.”
Having dropped the wrong kind of f-bomb, Strickland looked down as UFC CEO Dana White interrupted, asking who had the next question. “Why are you looking so sad now, Sean?” Du Plessis interjected.
When more homophobic jibes were fired at Du Plessis by the champ, Dricus pounced.
“Bro why are you so angry? You think your dad beat the sh*t out of you? Your dad doesn’t have sh*t on me. I’m going to show you what it’s like to beat you. Every childhood memory you have is going to come back when I’m in there with you. Every single one. The one where you lie in bed at night when your dad comes in and he beats the sh*t out of you.”
“I will take your soul you f*cking p*ssy,” Strickland, now clearly annoyed, shot back. Earlier in the presser, Sean O’Malley had taken a similar approach, suggesting Strickland had been sexually abused by his father.
Du Plessis, for his part, broke into laughter, suggesting he had hit a nerve. “You f*cking did hit a nerve, you f*cking bitch,” replied Strickland. “Go ice your f*cking ankle you f*cking coward.”
None of this trash talk is likely to help sell the fight in Toronto, and none of it makes either party look particularly good. It may light a fire under one man, or both— Strickland, who started the press conference in his usual, maniacal form, was outright scowling by the end of it. And it’s the second straight UFC press conference to see lines crossed and come off as downright embarrassing, after Colby Covington dragged Leon Edwards’ murdered father into the promotion of UFC 296. Still, if nothing else, at least something came out of Friday’s press conference: Dana White confirmed that UFC 299 will in fact take place in Miami, Florida.
