Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis issue statements following physical altercation at UFC 296

Middleweight champion Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis have issued statements on their UFC 296 crowd brawl.

Strickland and Du Plessis got quite heated during a press conference hyping up UFC’s upcoming fights for 2024. With things getting personal between the two, it leaves one to wonder why the two were seated close to each other during UFC 296. Of course, bad things ensued and UFC COO Dana White told reporters that he blames himself for the seating assignment flub.

Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis had a physical altercation in the crowd at UFC 296 😱 #MMA #UFC297 pic.twitter.com/SWzTkmAEeg

— bjpenndotcom (@bjpenndotcom) December 17, 2023

Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis Respond to UFC 296 Brawl

Strickland took to his X account shortly after the brawl to say the following:

I go hard on everyone I know this, izzy mouth feeding his dog, Dricus kissing his coach and grabbing his cup. Omally talking about sharing his wife in a podcast.

You're a man, on a world stage doing this in public

And what do you pick?

"You got abused as a kid ha"

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) December 17, 2023

“I go hard on everyone I know this, izzy mouth feeding his dog, Dricus kissing his coach and grabbing his cup. Omally talking about sharing his wife in a podcast. You’re a man, on a world stage doing this in public And what do you pick? ‘You got abused as a kid ha.'”

Du Plessis also had some words for Strickland after the incident.

Now I understand why you have a 33% finish rate, you hit like a girl, also 20 January the security won’t be there to save your life when I’m on top. 🤣🤣🤣 #rentfree

— Dricus Du Plessis (@dricusduplessis) December 17, 2023

“Now I understand why you have a 33% finish rate, you hit like a girl, also 20 January the security won’t be there to save your life when I’m on top. #rentfree.”

Strickland will put the UFC Middleweight Championship at stake against Du Plessis in the main event of UFC 297 on January 20. It’ll be Strickland’s first attempt at a successful UFC title defense after he shocked the MMA world back in September with his shocking unanimous decision victory over Israel Adesanya.

Du Plessis will look to make Strickland’s UFC title reign a short one. He earned this opportunity thanks to his eight-fight winning streak, with his most recent victory being a TKO over Robert Whittaker. Whittaker hadn’t suffered a loss to any other middleweight outside of Adesanya before running into Du Plessis at UFC 290 earlier this year.