Sean Strickland can’t work out how a man who seemingly does all the pieces mistaken contained in the Octagon and retains successful.
When Dricus Du Plessis heads to Sydney, Australia this weekend for the UFC’s second pay-per-view of 2025, he’ll look to attain his second profitable protection of the middleweight title by beating the identical man he defeated to take the crown final yr.
Du Plessis, undeniably one of the unconventional fighters on the UFC roster, goes into his UFC 312 headliner in opposition to Sean Strickland boasting a powerful 8-0 document contained in the Octagon. That may be a fairly spectacular stat for a man who does “nothing right” in accordance with his subsequent challenger.
“There’s no question. The thing about Dricus is, he does nothing right, but it always works out,” Strickland mentioned on UFC 312 Countdown. “He fights hard, he’s awkward, he’s still a bit unorthodox.”
Sean Strickland plans to deliver ‘more pressure, less skill’ in rematch with du plessis
Of their first assembly at UFC 297, Du Plessis narrowly outpointed Strickland to safe a split-decision victory and declare the 185-pound crown. Since then, he’s scored a surprising fourth-round submission victory over Israel Adesanya in August. Now, he’ll attempt to fend off Strickland who’s hellbent on taking again the title he misplaced and handing ‘DDP’ his first loss on MMA’s greatest stage.
To try this, ‘Tarzan’ plans to lean much less on his world-class boxing and as an alternative attempt to make his rematch with Du Plessis extra of a canine struggle.
“The hard thing was when I got that cut, it really changed the dynamic of the fight but I just think with this fight, it just needs to be a dog fight,” he informed ESPN. “More pressure, less skill.”
That shouldn’t be an issue for a man who routinely challenges his opponents to struggle to the dying.
