UFC middleweight champion and fantasy murderer Sean Strickland was “triggered” by comments No. 2-ranked title contender Dricus Du Plessis made during a recent press conference. That’s what prompted “Tarzan” to attack “Stillknocks” at the UFC 296 pay-per-view (PPV) last month in Las Vegas, a seat-clearing crowd brawl that had UFC CEO Dana White taking the brunt of the blame.
Some comments remain “off limits,” according to the champ.
“Remember when I attacked Dricus? I actually sent him a message,” Strickland said on YouTube. “‘Dude listen, Dricus, we’re gonna go try to murder each other, but if you bring that sh*t up again, I will (expletive) stab you. Press conference, weigh in … he was cool about it. I’m not telling you I don’t wanna fight you, Dricus, I’m not saying you’re not a good fighter. I’m just saying that’s a line that when crossed, it transcends fighting. If I go to Canada and you bring that up, guess what? I’m gonna go to jail, they’re gonna deport me and we spent eight weeks of training for no (expletive) reason.”
The same rule applies to mouthy UFC fans.
Strickland will defend his middleweight title against Du Plessis in the UFC 297 pay-per-view (PPV) headliner, locked and loaded for this Sat. night (Jan. 20, 2024) inside Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Former 185-pound champion Israel Adesanya will be seated cageside, perhaps to set up another middleweight title fight for UFC 300 in April.
“If I had a (expletive) gun on me at that UFC [crowd] fight, if I had a gun on me bro, there’s a chance bro … there’s a chance,” Strickland continued. “I don’t wanna throw away my life for something dumb. And that’s why I’m always like, ‘Hey guys, let’s just be nice to each other.’ The best thing I could do was 12-6 elbows to the back of the head, if I wanted to do the most damage. If you look in the video, right at the very end, I went to bite him. If you slow down the video you’ll see me grab his head and I went to take a chunk out of him. I’m almost positive I got a little bit of hair in my teeth. The reason why I didn’t fully commit as I did it, I was like ‘Sean there’s no coming back from this, the moment you take a piece from him.’ Watch the video.”
You can watch it here.
To see the rest of the UFC 297 fight card and PPV lineup click here.