Sean Strickland is not taking Dricus Du Plessis’ recent comment about his childhood lightly. This led to a sudden brawl between the two at UFC 296. The South African, nonetheless, is not bothered in any way, noting how the champ’s action “shows you how easily mentally he’ll be broken.”
It can be recalled that Du Plessis made a remark about Strickland’s childhood during the UFC’s seasonal press conference. The two are set to face each other in the octagon at UFC 297 in January, with “Stillknocks” challenging the champ for his middleweight belt. In the event, the two didn’t mince words in insulting each other. Yet, Strickland took offense at the final words that the challenger threw.
“You think your dad beat the sh*t out of you?” Du Plessis said, pertaining to the abusive father of the champ during his childhood. “Your dad doesn’t have sh*t on me. I’m going to show you what it’s like to get beaten. Every childhood memory you have is going to come back.”
After this, the two continued mocking each other when they both attended the UFC 296 as part of the crowd. In the event, Du Plessis mouthed some words to the champ, who later gestured to fire a gun at the opponent. Later, Strickland asked Gilbert Burns’s son to move and immediately jumped and pounced on the South African fighter.
In the end, Strickland was escorted out of the event and posted a tweet affirming the reason behind his rage:
Du Plessis, nonetheless, is indifferent about Strickland. When asked about it, the 29-year-old stressed how the champ carelessly speaks ill of others but could be easily triggered with “one little sentence.”
“I don’t really care how he feels,” Du Plessis said during the UFC 296 post-event interview. “I don’t care about him being triggered. He goes and he says whatever he wants and everybody’s just used to him. ‘Oh, I can say whatever I want,’ and now this one thing. This soft spot’s a trigger for him, and now we’re not allowed to say it. If you want to dish it out, you have to be able to take it. The fact that he’s triggered, I don’t give a damn about that.
“… The fact that he’s triggered only plays to my advantage. I can’t believe how easy it was to mentally trigger him. I thought, here’s Sean Strickland, he’s just bashing everybody, ranting about everything and everybody. One little sentence and the man loses his mind. Shows you how easily mentally he’ll be broken.”
When asked whether the clash further fueled the fire and made things more emotional for him, Du Plessis denied any negative and heavy feelings about it and suggested to the champ keep his temper.
“Right now, he needs to get calm in his head. He needs to regain his composure,” Du Plessis said. “I know I’m not the champ yet, so I shouldn’t be really giving the champ advice, but that would be my advice. Gather your composure; be calm. You make mistakes when you’re not calm. I’m cool as a cucumber. I’m feeling absolutely great.”
