Dricus Du
Plessis confirmed that Sean
Strickland did indeed reach out to him on social media and
threaten to attack him if the South African decided to bring up his
abusive childhood ahead of their
UFC 297 clash.
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Strickland (28-5) is scheduled to defend his middleweight strap in
the UFC 297 main event on Saturday. The bad blood between the two
started during a seasonal press conference last month where du
Plessis (20-2) brought up Strickland’s abusive childhood in
response to the champ alleging a sexual relationship between
“Stillknocks” and his coach.
Strickland went on to attack du Plessis while attending UFC 296
the next day before being escorted out of the T-Mobile Arena by law
enforcement. Strickland subsequently admitted that he was triggered
by the trash talk and even revealed intimate details about his
abusive childhood
on a podcast with Theo Von.
While Strickland is known for voicing his unabashed and oftentimes
controversial opinions, the champ has since said that certain
boundaries must not be crossed with trash talk. Strickland has even
threatened to “stab” du Plessis if the South African ever brings up
his traumatic childhood.
“Stillknocks” recently admitted that while he isn’t really worried
about Strickland attacking him before the fight, the idea of the
champ potentially sabotaging the fight did cross his mind.
“Am I scared that he self-sabotages this fight? Sure. That is
something I’ve thought about. Maybe trying everything to get out of
it but no, for me right now, the last press conference was winning
on the mic. That was winning with Sean Strickland at his own game.
Right now, this week where we’re at, I’m not here to do that. I’m
here to be the middleweight champion of the world. My focus is on
fighting, not making jokes,” the 30-year-old said during UFC 297
media day.
Du Plessis also confirmed that Strickland direct messaged him on
social media regarding crossing the line with trash-talking.
“[The message] said something along the lines of ‘listen, this is
what happened, I’m sorry what I said about your coach and you but
if there’s anything that’s crossing the line and listen, we sell a
fight and all that but if there’s anything out of line that I said
that you want me to pull back, I’ll apologize, I’ll even take back
what I said. I’ll remove posts.”
“He said if there’s anything he shouldn’t say, he’ll lay back, but
if I bring up anything with his childhood again, he said, ‘I’ll
kill you and ruin your life and mine way before we step into the
cage,’ something like that. That’s exactly his words. So, I’m like
OK, this poor guy. This seems serious. I feel bad for him. I just
replied and said ‘listen, there’s nothing you can say that has any
effect on me. Go crazy.’
“There’s nothing he can say that can get under my skin. I’m the
mentally strongest fighter in the world, and I told him, you can
literally say whatever you want, all is fair in love and war. But I
won’t say anything about your childhood again, cool. That’s how it
came down.”