Sean Strickland challenges Dricus du Plessis to ‘stand up like f*cking men’ in UFC 312 rematch, du Plessis responds

Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis | Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Sean Strickland doesn’t want Dricus du Plessis to mix the martial arts when they fight again at UFC 312.

The former titleholder issued a challenge to the current middleweight king on social media, telling du Plessis he wants to strictly meet in the standup with no grappling. Du Plessis defeated Strickland to win the belt at UFC 297 in a main event bout that was contested primarily on the feet.

Regardless, Strickland felt compelled to make his demands anyway. Watch below.

“I’m going to need you to be a f*cking man,” Strickland said. “I’m going to need you to stand up, not go to your knees, and we’re going to need to strike like men. I know you like to wrestle and you like to f*cking choke people out… but I’ll make a pact with you, you make a pact with me that we f*cking stand up like f*cking men and we settle this shit like men.”

In their first meeting, du Plessis narrowly out-struck Strickland to take a split decision on the scorecards. The South African star is known for his grappling, having overwhelmed opponents with ground-and-pound in the past, and having scored a submission win over Israel Adesanya in his most recent outing.

Du Plessis later took to social media to shoot down Strickland’s offer.

“There are no pacts between lions and men,” du Plessis wrote on Twitter.

Du Plessis seeks his second consecutive title defense when he rematches Strickland on Feb, 8 in Sydney, while Strickland looks to become a two-time champ coming off of a convincing decision win over Paulo Costa.