A middleweight championship rematch headlines the UFC 312 fight card in Sydney, Australia on Feb. 9. Champion Dricus du Plessis puts his belt on the line against former titleholder Sean Strickland.
The two first fought at UFC 297 in January 2024. Du Plessis won the fight and the championship by split decision. Strickland has been relentlessly seeking a rematch from the moment the UFC 297 scorecards were read.
Weeks ahead of their rematch at Qudos Bank Arena, formerly known as the Sydney SuperDome, Strickland offered to make a ‘pact’ with the champion to keep the fight on their feet.
“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.”
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Du Plessis reacted to Strickland’s offer with a one-sentence response. “There are no pacts between Lions and men,” he wrote on X.
There are no pacts between Lions and men https://t.co/oLxMPwgqIq
— Dricus Du Plessis (@dricusduplessis) January 22, 2025
