Former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland evidently wasn’t too impressed by how rival Dricus Du Plessis had his hand raised at the expense of Israel Adesanya last year.
Strickland and Du Plessis are renewing hostilities this week in Sydney, Australia, where they’ll run it back 13 months on from the South African’s title-winning victory over “Tarzan” in Canada.
Since then, Du Plessis has successfully defended the gold on one occasion, submitting Adesanya with a face crank in round four of the UFC 305 main event in Perth last August. Strickland, meanwhile, earned his shot at redemption with a five-round performance against Paulo Costa that was widely branded lackluster.
With that in mind, “Stillknocks” has been touting his evolution as a fighter across the past 12 months, claiming to have grown more as an athlete than Strickland since they last collided.
During a recent interview with Fox Sports Australia, the polaziring American responded to those remarks. Suffice to say, he does not agree…
“I don’t know about that,” Strickland said. “Dude, you fought Izzy, and Izzy was beating you in striking. I dog walked Izzy. Don’t get too excited, Izzy. I mean that in a striking sense. Maybe you (Du Plessis) might wrestle a little bit more.
“It was good dude…he took the guy down again. He took the coward’s way out, real bad,” Strickland continued. “He’s supposed to be a strong South African, but wants to wrestle him. Real bad, dude. At the end of the day, he fought well, but you’re gonna let the Chinaman beat you in striking, which we all remember. … I don’t like to wrestle. I’m a grown ass man. I do the right things. I stand and strike.”
Those comments are not surprising given the lead-up to Saturday’s UFC 312 pay-per-view, which has seen the challenger lay down a striking-only challenge to Du Plessis.
Given how quick the South African was to shut that down, Strickland’s takedown defense could be tested come fight night at Qudos Bank Arena.