Dricus Du Plessis has offered his version of events following his unexpected scuffle with upcoming opponent, Sean Strickland, at UFC 296.
In what ended up being one of the biggest talking points away from the action inside the cage, Middleweight champion Strickland and number two ranked contender Du Plesis came to blows in the fighter's area of the arena, following a short verbal exchange.
The two are set to square off for the Middleweight title on January 20th at UFC 297 and tensions between them appeared to be relatively subdued prior to their first press conference, 24 hours before UFC 296. However after some unsavoury verbal jousting during the press conference, a hostile discord arose between the pair.
The situation hit a boiling point the very next day when in between bouts, Du Plessis was beamed up on the big screen and as the camera panned out, it was revealed Strickland was sitting a mere two rows in front.
Discussing the incident on The Coach And The Casual podcast, Du Plessis revealed how the events of the night unfolded. He said:
“We walk in and I look at my tickets, this is the first time sitting cage side. I live in South Africa so I don’t come to all of the events. Row C, seat 45- whatever and I see Sean Strickland over there, all the fighters sitting there, I assume they are going to (split the fighters up) and the guy goes ‘you’re over there.’ I immediately realised, he is in row A, then B, then C, meaning we are sitting two rows (apart) we even had the same seat number!”
Although his team felt uncomfortable with the situation, Du Plessis explained at that point, he had no intention of coming to blows.
“So he is literally sitting right in front of me. My teammate goes ‘I know what is going to happen here.’ He goes ‘I know you, this is trouble waiting to happen.’ I said ‘Bro, I am not going to get into a fight at the UFC, I am a professional. Yes, I am going to talk sh*t. That, you better know, but I am not going to start a fight.’
“They tell me ‘The camera is going to be on you guys’ and I obviously know this is his domain, the crowd is definitely booing me. I am just going to join them with boos and boo him. As I did it I just saw he was so irritated then he turned around and done the whole gun thing and I went (dodged the bullet) and he turned back around. I could see he was just so frustrated and I said ‘Listen, even with that gun you’re missing.’ and he kind of looked around and I said ‘Yeah, look in front of you before you beat your ass.’
“Then he turned around and Gilbert Burns’ kid was right there and Alex Pantoja’s wife was there and he leaned over to say something and I was like ‘Okay, cool’ and I just took Gilbert’s kid and I said ‘Sorry kid.’ I moved two chairs and there was one chair between us and I said. ‘Well, come on then.’
The South African Middleweight admitted that he thought the verbal exchange was as far as it would go.
“And then we were looking at each other and he said something, I said something then it was like, okay, that is the end of the storm. I turned but was still looking at him then he turned and then just jumped. I thought it was over, he jumped and I was like ‘Here we go!’
“The crazy thing is we came into this thing without any beef, then obviously the press conference happened, he got triggered and here we are.”
Breaking down the brawl, Du Plessis quipped that his undefeated UFC record is still intact and that although Strickland got some shots off, there was one clear victor. He said:
“It was a great fight. I was 5-0, I am 6-0 now. What happened was, when he came over there, there is only one way to go. I am either going that way (forward) or we are falling backwards and I ain't letting that happen. He was on top, I got his legs, got the take down as I was on him I got a few in but then we got separated. I mean, I felt some punches, he definitely landed some shots on top of the head. It was good, it was cool.”
Strickland vs Du Plessis tops a stacked UFC 297 set to take place on January 20th at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada.
