Sunday MMA Quick Hits: Strickland Responds to Du Plessis, O’Malley Abuse Comments

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Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis, UFC 2024 Season press conference
Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis, UFC 2024 Season Press Conference Credit: Gabriel Gonzalez/Cageside Press

Sean Strickland draws the line at making light of child abuse, so Dricus Du Plessis finds a clip of the middleweight champ doing just that. Plus, Brandon Royval explains “Raw Dawg” nickname, MVP teases a decision on a new home (which is later announced), and more in your Sunday MMA Quick Hits for December 17, 2023!

Strickland takes Du Plessis, O’Malley to task for abuse comments

One of the more unfortunate moments at Friday’s UFC 2024 Season Press Conference saw both Sean O’Malley and Dricus Du Plessis making fun of Sean Strickland for allegedly being abused by his father.

“At least my dad didn’t f*ck me,” goaded O’Malley, when Strickland suggested the bantamweight allowed other men to sleep with his wife. Du Plessis, meanwhile, said he’d give Strickland a beating worse than his father, one that would invoke memories of his childhood.

Gross stuff, frankly. There are lines, and then there are lines.

On social media early Saturday morning (or late Friday evening, depending on your time zone), Strickland responded.

“I expect nothing less from O’Malley and Dricus. Next time come at me as a man… Clearly you don’t know what that means…… I just wanna say one thing that I feel needs to be said..

“There are a lot of kids out there who have been abused and molested and it’s a damn tragic thing that forever changes you. How you function, how you view the world, how you treat relationships, how you handle addiction and for someone to put you down with that level of trauma on a world stage is an utter disgrace.. I have a big following of people who suffered trauma, molestation and I will tell you that it’s not funny to me, whatever you’ve gone through or have been through isn’t funny to me…….. I hope you all understand that these are weak men who don’t understand hardship, they don’t understand what it’s like to live with demons… Forever a struggle they will never understand.”

Du Plessis posts receipts

If Sean Strickland is going to fly the flag for abuse victims, it appears Dricus Du Plessis isn’t about to support him, or apologize for his words. Instead, he unearthed a clip of Strickland with Brendan Schaub suggesting the world would be a better place if kids were beaten more.

UFC 297 has the potential to be particularly ugly in terms of narrative if this is the path these two choose to go down.

They didn’t even question the math

Brandon Royval made a memorable media appearance ahead of UFC 296, claiming he had four kids from six baby mamas when asked about his “Raw Dawg” nickname.

The fact that none of the talking heads involved questioned the math (or, alternatively, the biology) is somewhat concerning. Those would be Chris Weidman, Daniel Cormier, and the usually reliable Laura Sanko.

And yes, Royval was joking, it just flew way over everyone’s head.

MVP teases decision between PFL, UFC imminent

Michael “Venom” Page is the hottest free agent on the market at the moment, with both the UFC and PFL showing interest in the Bellator welterweight.

Page’s name was shown in the UFC war room earlier this month, attached for a fight at UFC 297 against Kevin Holland. He showed up in person, however, at PFL Europe 4, getting into a friendly face-off with French star Cedric Doumbe.

Holland vs. MVP would be big. MVP vs. Doumbe would arguably be bigger. Turns out, it’s the UFC, as Dana White announced Page’s signing during the UFC 296 post-fight press conference.

Aljo given the cold shoulder at UFC 296?

A fighter the UFC is calling the greatest bantamweight of all time, in promoting current 135lb champ Sean O’Malley, was left out in the cold at UFC 296.

That would be Aljamain Sterling, who arrived at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday to find that his tickets “had been pulled.”

Miesha Tate open to Aldana fight

Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa put on a strong Fight of the Night contender, and one of the best women’s fights of 2023, at UFC 296. Aldana would come away with the unanimous decision win, but not before having her leg chewed up by Rosa, and face bloodied.

After that performance, ex-champ Miesha Tate, who recently returned to the win column, expressed interest in facing Aldana.

Some Parting Strickland/Du Plessis stuff

This is going to get ugly, folks. After being physically separated at UFC 296 following an altercation sparked by Sean Strickland jumping over a few seats to get at his UFC 297 opponent, here’s what he and Dricus Du Plessis had to say on social media.

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