Dricus du Plessis is set to challenge Sean Strickland for the middleweight title at UFC 297 in January. Both men are coming off the back of superb upset victories, with du Plessis beating Robert Whittaker via TKO at UFC 290 and ‘Tarzan’ defeating Israel Adesanya via decision at UFC 293. Daniel Cormier, part of the pay-per-view’s commentary team, recently revealed he had a conversation with the South African’s team while they were attending last weekend’s UFC 296 event.
According to Cormier, Dricus du Plessis’ camp is brimming with confidence ahead of his title fight against Sean Strickland. ‘DC’ shared details of his conversation with the middleweight contender’s team during a recent YouTube video, stating, “I talked to people close to du Plessis, they believe it is an afterthought that he gets through Sean Strickland. They believe that he is so far ahead of Sean Strickland, that it will not be competitive. I don’t know how you can watch that last fight [against Adesanya] and feel like that.”
Anticipation for the clash between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis is at an all-time high following their brawl in the crowd at UFC 296. Fortunately, neither man nor anyone else was injured during the scuffle, and their title fight will go ahead as planned. The press conference for UFC 297, UFC 298, and UFC 299 featured both fighters engaging in verbal sparring, with ‘Stillknocks’ poking at his opponent by bringing up Strickland’s childhood trauma, which made ‘Tarzan’ more irate than fans had previously seen.
At UFC 296, the pair sat two rows apart from each other, and their existing tension escalated into an all-out brawl in the crowd. ESPN MMA later interviewed Dricus du Plessis, who commented on the incident, saying, “It’s probably not a good example, but here we are. Things happen, nobody got hurt. All is good… I don’t care about him being triggered. He goes and he says whatever he wants… and now there’s one thing that’s a soft spotted trigger for him and now we’re not allowed to say it?”
