Heading into their championship rematch at UFC 312 on Feb. 9, former middleweight titleholder Sean Strickland challenged champion Dricus Du Plessis to keep the fight standing. Strickland suggested making a ‘pact,’ a gentlemen’s agreement to not take the fight to the ground.
“Listen Dutchman, I’m going to need you to be a f*cking man,” Strickland said in a video posted to social media. “I’m gonna need you to stand up, not go to your knees, and we’re gonna need to strike like men. I know you like to wrestle and you like to f*cking choke people out and do some gay sh*t, dude, but I’ll make a pact with you, you make a pact with me that we f*cking stand up like f*cking men and we settle this sh*t like men.”
Du Plessis wasn’t interested in making any pact and quickly shot down the request. The South African thought the whole thing was ‘ridiculous.’
“Look, it’s a ridiculous thing to ask. If you want to make pacts about us just standing up, go do boxing,” Du Plessis told FOX Sports Australia. “I don’t go into fights thinking I have to stand up or take the guy down. I do what the situation tells me to do. That’s what MMA fighters do. I’m comfortable everywhere.”
While the champion expects the rematch with Strickland to play out mostly on the feet, if a takedown presents itself, he plans to seize the opportunity.
“100 percent, I think we are most likely going to keep it standing,” Du Plessis said. “I know I have the cardio, I know I can push him back and I know I have the power to knock him out. So for me, that’s great. Then, if the opportunity comes to get a takedown, it’s a decision you have to make immediately. If you see the moment, you take it.”
Related: Dricus Du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland 1 | Full Fight Video
Du Plessis thinks Strickland talks a tough game but the pre-fight words don’t match the octagon performances.
“He said ‘To the death,’ and I was ready for that,” Du Plessis said. “You saw it, too. I went forward for 23 minutes of a 25-minute fight. But from him? It was jabs and teeps. Against Paulo Costa, next fight, same thing. So, ‘to the death?’
“Sean Strickland knows a lot of one-liners to sound tough, but I expose fake tough guys. And as for him now again saying let’s make this pact? What’s the purpose of a pact after we saw what happened the last time? Plus, I’m not here to make pacts – I’m here to win.”
