Sean Strickland may say he’s ready to fight to the death every time he steps inside the Octagon, but he sure doesn’t fight like a guy ready to die.
After surrendering the middleweight world title a little more than a year ago, Strickland will look to reclaim the crown when he meets reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 on February 8 in Sydney, Australia.
The first time around, Strickland came up short on two of the three scorecards, suffering a closely contested split decision. The fight itself didn’t exactly set the world on fire — a frustrating reality considering the intense buildup and Strickland’s demand that he and the South African star go into the bout ready to “fight to the death.” Instead, Strickland stayed on his back foot for much of the fight, leaning on his jab to try and outpoint ‘DDP’ throughout the five-round affair.
Recently, Strickland suggested that he and Du Plessis enter a pact ahead of their sequel scrap in The Land Down Under.
Sean Strickland wants to make a stand and bang pact with DDP. No takedowns. No grappling. Just striking.
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— Full Violence
Sean Strickland wants to make a stand and bang pact with DDP. No takedowns. No grappling. Just striking.
(@Full_Violence)
“I’m going to need you to be a f**king man and I’m gonna need you to stand up, not go to your knees, and we’re gonna need to f**king strike like men,” Strickland demanded in a video. “I know you like to wrestle, and you like to f**kng choke people out and do some gay s**t, dude but I’ll make a pact with you. You make a pact with me that we f**kng stand up like f**king men and we settle this s**t like men.’’
Du Plessis says Sean Strickland is there to defend, not fight
Du Plessis was quick to dismiss any such pact with Strickland and criticized ‘Tarzan’ for constantly talking a big game during the pre-fight festivities but failing to live up to the hype once he’s inside the cage.
“My response was clear. ‘There are no pacts between lions and men.’ That was my direct response,” Du Plessis said. “But you know, that was exactly what we did the last time,” Du Plessis said in an interview with Mark Bouris. “He said, ‘To death. Let’s go. Let’s fight to the death.’ And the man threw a jab and a teep for five rounds.
“In that—this is a stat, you can go check it—for 23 minutes, I went forward. He went forward for two minutes. That is a very clear indication of who’s there to fight and who’s there to defend.”
In their first meeting, Du Plessis landed six of 11 attempted takedowns but only notched two minutes of control time. Still, those takedowns are likely what swung the decision in favor of ‘DDP’ considering Strickland landed 36 more significant strikes during the contest.
Strickland also landed at a higher percentage, connecting with 42% of his shots while ‘DDP’ landed at a 38% clip.
