With UFC 297 just a few weeks away, fight fans are eager to watch how the main event will turn out. The reason is the animosity that the two fighters, middleweight champion, Sean Strickland and title challenger, Dricus Du Plessis, have for each other. All this stemmed from a comment made by Du Plessis, which seemed to strike a nerve in Strickland.

In the UFC seasonal press conference in December, the South African fighter made a comment provoking the champion of being abused as a child by his father. This sparked a fire inside Strickland that we’ve never seen before. Later on, due to poor seating arrangements at UFC 296, the two fighters were close to each other, which, as we all know, turned into a fistfight outside the cage. Strickland finally revealed why he attacked Du Plessis in a recent podcast with Theo Von.

Sean Strickland gives an insight into why he attacked Dricus Du Plessis

In a recent podcast with Theo Von, Sean Strickland opened up on why he attacked Dricus Du Plessis. Strickland stated, “I’m at this press conference right and he’s like talking about like child molestation, child abuse… Now I’m in this weird position where I can’t defend myself because… if I if I would have followed up with it now what am I doing? I’m pretty much saying that like what you said by joking about like being abused or molested.”

The middleweight champion then went on to explain the weird predicament that he was left in after the comment, by saying, “Like I’m somehow a weaker man for that. The fact that again didn’t happen to me, but if it did happen to me, I’m a weaker man. So by me being defensive and like clapping back and going back now it’s like there’s some things that were off limits.”

“You know, you don’t talk about a man’s wife. You don’t talk about a man’s kids. Don’t talk about like f**ing a kid being abused these things were all off limits. And dude, like once he crossed that it was like… I tried to ignore it. I tried to f**ing ignore it,” stated Sean Strickland, suggesting that there are some topics that are better left untouched, even when trash-talking an opponent.

The UFC middleweight champion, Sean Strickland, made the reason for his attacking Du Plessis quite apparent. Though not the correct reaction, we now know what led to the outburst. This begs us to question what his mindset would be like entering the fight.

Eric Nicksick reveals the champion’s mindset going into the fight at UFC 297

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Sean Strickland’s coach, Eric Nicksick revealed that the champion was triggered following the brawl at UFC 296. Especially after the brawl, he claimed that Strickland came into the workout with the motivation of hurting Du Plessis, which he stated was the wrong mindset for going into a fight.

However, he revealed that Strickland has now calmed down after Nicksick made ‘Tarzan’ understand that going into the fight agitated would only favor Dricus Du Plessis, as it would disrupt their game plan. Nicksick went on to state that the champion is now focused on the fight.

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Do you believe that Sean Strickland will manage to keep his cool inside the octagon? Or will Dricus Du Plessis manage to get inside the head of Strickland again before the fight? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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