Tag: dricus du plessis

Sean Strickland can’t figure out how a guy who seemingly does everything wrong inside the Octagon and keeps winning.

When Dricus Du Plessis heads to Sydney, Australia this weekend for the UFC’s second pay-per-view of 2025, he’ll look to score his second successful defense of the middleweight title by beating the same man he defeated to take the crown last year.

Du Plessis, undeniably one of the most unconventional fighters on the UFC roster, goes into his UFC 312 headliner against Sean Strickland boasting an impressive 8-0 record inside the Octagon. That is a pretty impressive stat for a guy who does “nothing right” according to his next challenger.

“There’s no question. The thing about Dricus is, he does nothing right, but it always works out,” Strickland said on UFC 312 Countdown. “He fights hard, he’s awkward, he’s still a bit unorthodox.”

Sean Strickland plans to bring ‘more pressure, less skill’ in rematch with du plessis

In their first meeting at UFC 297, Du Plessis narrowly outpointed Strickland to secure a split-decision victory and claim the 185-pound crown. Since then, he’s scored a stunning fourth-round submission victory over Israel Adesanya in August. Now, he’ll try to fend off Strickland who is hellbent on taking back the title he lost and handing ‘DDP’ his first loss on MMA’s biggest stage.

To do that, ‘Tarzan’ plans to lean less on his world-class boxing and instead try to make his rematch with Du Plessis more of a dog fight.

“The hard thing was when I got that cut, it really changed the dynamic of the fight but I just think with this fight, it just needs to be a dog fight,” he told ESPN. “More pressure, less skill.”

That shouldn’t be a problem for a guy who routinely challenges his opponents to fight to the death.

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.

Collection goes live tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/n6yvhNq8tW

— Full Violence (@Full_Violence) January 22, 2025

“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.