A few weeks ago, Sean Strickland was diving over chairs to throw punches at Dricus du Plessis in the crowd at UFC 296.
Now, just days away from their main event clash at UFC 297, Strickland has buried whatever animosity he had toward du Plessis, going as far as telling the crowd in Toronto to cheer for his opponent on Saturday night. It was quite a change of pace after Strickland threatened to stab du Plessis if the South African fighter brought up his childhood trauma again — the exact subject that led to that brawl this past December.
Instead, it was former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya catching strays from a very animated Strickland.
“Here’s the thing about Dricus, he ain’t f****** Izzy — Dricus likes to fight,” Strickland shouted. “He likes to fight and he’s a hell of a fight. Do you know what that means? We’re going to be d*** to d***, nipple to nipple in that range f****** fighting.
“I hope after we’re done, win or lose, we’re f****** bloody and we put on a show for you f****** guys. Applaud him and encourage him. Because we want a f****** war!”
Despite the brawl and the pre-fight threats, Strickland insisted he never had any real ill will towards du Plessis. Strickland actually put the blame back on UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, who initiated the uncomfortable trash talk at a separate press conference where they all shared the stage together.
Outside of that incident and later attacking du Plessis in the crowd, Strickland promises he had no problems whatsoever with his upcoming opponent. In fact, he actually commended du Plessis for managing to get him so bent out of shape and angry during that previous encounter.
“Here’s the thing, it was never f****** personal,” Strickland said. “You had the cuck Sean O’Malley say some stupid s*** he knows nothing about. I go hard on everybody. You don’t think I deserve some s***? I go hard on all you motherf******.
“I’m proud of the motherf******. You don’t see me lose character often, this motherf***** got me there.”
Rather than launch himself across the table, Strickland extended a hand to du Plessis so the fighters could agree that they would put on a memorable show for the Canadian crowd on Saturday.
“Real talk you guys, me and Dricus, we’re going to try to f****** kill each other for you guys,” Strickland said. “Dricus, can I get an agreement to the f****** death? To the f****** death! Godd*** respect him for that.”
The middleweights shook hands to acknowledge the unusual wager and that appeared to bury the hatchet between them.
The same can’t be said for Adesanya after he picked du Plessis to win the fight at UFC 297 and beat Strickland to become the new middleweight champion. Strickland didn’t take aim at the prediction as much as sending Adesanya a harsh reminder how their fight played out.
“Listen Izzy, the f****** guy, the f****** cringelord, the pup play himself. F*** Izzy,” Strickland said. “I could have took Izzy down and beat his ass on the ground but I chose to stand with him like a man. What did he do the whole fight? Run away like a b****. Izzy, shut your f****** mouth.”
