Dricus Du Plessis is confident to deliver an exciting fight to UFC fans when he faces Sean Strickland at UFC 297 on January 20. Nonetheless, the South African doesn’t think the American opponent could last five rounds with him.
Du Plessis will be challenging the middleweight champion in the headliner bout at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The No.2-ranked middleweight fighter believes their fight will be compelling, given both sides’ eagerness and approach inside the octagon.
“I think people know it’s going to be an entertaining fight,” Du Plessis told My MMA News. “I’ve had great performances, and I’ve had not so good performances in my career, in the UFC and out the UFC…But not one of those performances, good or bad, was not entertaining. I never had an unentertaining fight in my life, and with Sean Strickland, he’s had some fights where it wasn’t that entertaining. … But when you get me and you get Strickland, you get two guys that are not afraid to stand in there and bang. He doesn’t like to fight backwards, and I promise you I’m not fighting backwards.”
Both have impressive records and will be coming from their recent victories over their previous opponents. Yet, despite Strickland’s position in the middleweight division, Du Plessis believes he can take the champ down without needing the entire five rounds of the bout, saying he’ll make the final move as soon as he gets the opportunity.
“One thing that I think is going to shock a lot of people is the way I go at this,” Du Plessis said in an interview with My MMA News. “From the very first second of this fight, I’m going to go like I always do. The first opportunity I get, I will finish this fight. My honest prediction, there’s no way we’re going to championship rounds of this fight.”
Strickland is equally thrilled as Du Plessis in entering the cage. In his recent statement, the champ even shared disapproval of Khamzat Chimaev as a title challenger, saying the South African is the one who deserves the shot.
“Dricus is like, so awkward, he’s good,” Strickland said on his YouTube channel. “Where it’s like, you know, I’m a million times better than him. I spar guys he’s fought, I know who he is. But he’s so awkward, he’s good.
“It’s going to be a f*cking war. He’ll be a tougher fight than Chimaev. Chimaev, he doesn’t f*cking deserve it. We all know that. The only reason why Chimaev gets that shot is because he sells a lot of tickets. That’s it.”
