On Saturday, December 16 during the UFC 296 end-of-year pay-per-view, Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis came to blows in the crowd ahead of their bout.
The two are set to meet at UFC 297 this weekend and the anticipation is beginning to build for Strickland’s first title defense. The animosity between the middleweights has grown stronger each week following comments by ‘Stillknocks’ during the promotion’s seasonal press conference.
While sitting down with Chris Curtis for an overdue episode of their podcast The Man Dance, Sean Strickland discussed his brawl with Dricus Du Plessis. He revealed a wild conversation he had with the South African after the incident.
“I actually talked to Dricus after that. And I was like, ‘Dricus.’ Because I like the guy. Me and him are going to have a f***ing war, we’re going to have a f***ing death match.”
“There is no other way that ends, you know. Someone’s getting knocked the f*** out,” Strickland said about his UFC 297 headliner. “So I actually sent him a f***ing message and I was like, ‘Dude, listen, Dricus. We’re going to try and murder each other but if you bring that sh** up again, I will f***ing stab you.'”
“I’m not saying I don’t want to fight you, Dricus. I’m not saying you’re not a good fighter. I’m just saying that that’s a line that when crossed, it transcends fighting.”
“If I go to Canada and you bring that up, well guess what? I’m going to go to jail, they’re going to deport me, and we spent eight weeks of training for no f***ing reason.”
Related: Dricus Du Plessis asked about pressing charges against Sean Strickland after UFC 296 brawl
Strickland then detailed his thought process during the scuffle and revealed he attempted to bite Du Plessis before stopping himself from doing so.
“I knew where it would get broken up, so I was like, the best thing I could do is 12-6 elbows to the back of the head. If I wanted to do the most damage.”
“And this is f***ed up bro, this is really f***ed up… If you look in the video right at the very end, I went to go bite… The reason why I didn’t fully commit as I did it, I was like, ‘Sean, there’s no coming back from this.'”
Check out what Sean Strickland had to say about his ongoing feud with Dricus Du Plessis in the video below.
https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/sean-strickland-implies-he-would-stab-dricus-du-plessis-if-childhood-trauma-is-mentioned-again
