Dricus Du
Plessis recently addressed the possibility of a future rematch
against Sean
Strickland.
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Du Plessis dethroned Strickland at UFC 297 this past January via
split decision in a middleweight title fight that could have easily
been scored either way. Strickland later claimed to have been
robbed due to the fight taking place in “liberal” Canada.
Strickland has since been calling for a rematch, strengthening his
case with a decision win over Paulo Costa
at UFC 302 in June. Meanwhile, Du Plessis is set for his first
title defense against former champ Israel
Adesanya at UFC 305
on Saturday in Perth, Australia.
When it comes to a potential rematch against Strickland, Du Plessis
says he doesn’t owe the American anything. The South African claims
to be surprised by the controversy surrounding the scorecards,
which according to him, shouldn’t have been split in the first
place. However, that doesn’t mean Du Plessis will shy away from a
rematch against Strickland if the logistics makes sense.
“I don’t owe Sean anything. The rules are pretty clear. It’s scored
round-by-round. The fact that it was a split decision is the
biggest shocking factor for me,” Du Plessis recently told Kevin Iole. “It was a very clear
win for me. But for me, the biggest fight is the fight that I want,
the fight the fans want to see. At the end of the day, they are the
ones that pay for the tickets, buy the pay-per-views and they are
the ones that watch this sport. So, obviously for me, the Adesanya
fight was by far the biggest fight. It’s probably the biggest fight
of the year, one of them at least. And the Strickland fight, sure.
I mean if that’s the fight that makes sense, that’s the fight that
I’m gonna fight.”
Du Plessis was in fact ready for an immediate rematch against
Strickland and even claims to have informed the
UFC, which chose to go with Adesanya.
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even told the UFC, I said there’s no problem if they want to do the
rematch, if Izzy isn’t ready to fight or anything. Strickland
rematch, I’m more than willing. Even in Vegas in his hometown, I
have no problem with that. And they decided to go with the Adesanya
fight, which is great for me.”
While Strickland is currently the No.1 middleweight contender, a
clash between top contenders Robert
Whittaker and Khamzat
Chimaev set for UFC 308
in October poses a strong threat to his title aspirations. Du
Plessis speculates the winner of that bout could make Strickland
lose relevance in title conversations.
“After this, we’ll approach whatever comes,” he said. “But it will
be interesting to see if Strickland’s even close to the
conversation with Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker fight
happening soon.”