Written by Sean Strickland has challenged middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis to make their UFC 312 title fight a striking-only encounter.
Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) rematches Du Plessis (22-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in the Feb. 8 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The main card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Strickland was taken down six times when he lost his middleweight title to Du Plessis by split decision at UFC 297. He’s urging Du Plessis to stand and bang with him for the entire 25 minutes – or until someone gets finished – when they run things back.
“Listen, Dutchman, I’m going to need you to be a f*cking man, and I’m going to need you to stand up, not go to your knees, and we’re going to need to f*cking strike like men,” Strickland told Full Violence.
“I know you like to wrestle, and you like to f*cking choke people out and do some gay sh*t, dude, 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 sh*t like men.”
It didn’t take long for Du Plessis to shoot him down in a response on X.
There are no pacts between Lions and men https://t.co/oLxMPwgqIq
— Dricus Du Plessis (@dricusduplessis) January 22, 2025
Du Plessis used his grappling to notch his first title defense against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in August. He submitted “The Stylebender” in Round 4, and landed four takedowns in the fight.
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 312.