Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t believe he crossed the line by bringing up
Sean Strickland’s traumatic childhood during their verbal back and forth.
Dricus Du Plessis doesn’t believe he crossed the line by bringing up Sean Strickland’s traumatic childhood during their verbal back and forth.
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“Stillknocks” is scheduled to challenge Strickland for the middleweight title at
UFC 297 on Jan. 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The bad blood between the two started with a seasonal press conference last month where Du Plessis brought up Strickland’s abusive childhood. Du Plessis vowed to put on a worse beating on Strickland than his own father after the champ joked about a sexual relationship between the South African and his coach.
Strickland subsequently admitted that he was triggered by the comments, leading to him
attacking Du Plessis while attending
UFC 296 the next day. However, Du Plessis doesn’t regret anything he said to Strickland.
“I don’t regret anything. I said what I said. Listen, if you’re dishing it out, you’re going to get it. I’m not going to keep on hammering on it, but I stand by what I said. I did not joke about it. What happened was fact. I stated fact. He joked about it, in previous interviews. I didn’t joke about it; I stated the facts. Obviously, it had a massive effect on him. I won’t be hammering on that because it’s not necessary. I got the results I wanted. I don’t need to hammer on one thing,” the 32-year-old said on
"The MMA Hour.”
“Obviously, it’s terrible that it happened to him, but it did. Don’t project onto others what you don’t want to happen to you. That’s the way it is. He disrespected me, disrespected my coach, and I won’t let that slide. So, take that and now we’re on a clean page. We start over. It’s strictly business. Nothing’s personal. I have no animosity towards him. I said what I said, what happened, happened, there’s no animosity, from my side at least. I’m here to do my business. I’m here to win a fight.”
Strickland subsequently went on a podcast with comedian Theo Von where he
shared intimate details about his childhood trauma and also said that Du Plessis crossed a line. However, the South African believes Strickland, who is known for his unabashed opinions, doesn’t get to decide where to draw the line when it comes to trash talk.
“He had a lot to say about
Khalil Rountree, and he said how weak of a man Khalil is for crying,” Du Plessis said. “He did the exact same thing, just on a bigger stage. Not talking about somebody’s wife. I’m assuming because he has somebody in his life now, that became a thing. He didn’t care about
Ian Garry’s wife when he said what he said. It wasn’t his place to say anything, but whatever.
