Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland have promised to fight to the death in their upcoming UFC 297 middleweight title bout tonight in Toronto, Canada. ‘Stillknocks’ and ‘Tarzan’ were involved in a feud after their contentious UFC 296 press conference, where the latter made disparaging remarks about ‘DDP’ and his coach.

This prompted the South African to promise to hurt Strickland so badly that he would forget the abuse his alcoholic father subjected him to. This was followed by a brawl in the stands at UFC 296 along with Strickland threatening to stab ‘DDP’ if he brought up his childhood again. Nevertheless, despite all this, Du Plessis has a fondness and respect for Strickland as he revealed in an interview with Daniel Cormier.

Dricus Du Plessis thinks Strickland is “respectful and nice”

Dricus Du Plessis joined former two-division champion Daniel Cormier for an interview on the latter’s YouTube channel ahead of his UFC 297 clash against Strickland. On being asked by Daniel Cormier about his beef with Strickland, the South African had some surprising revelations.

‘Stillknocks’ told Cormier that despite their recent flare-up, he still had a positive impression of Strickland. The 30-year-old revealed that in their previous meetings before their fight, ‘Tarzan’ had been very polite and respectful to him. ‘DDP’ felt Strickland had a lot of trauma he was dealing with, but was essentially a nice person.

“I don’t know because I’ve had encounters with him before where we met once or twice, but quick, I’m talking about 10 seconds in the PI [UFC Performance Institute] when I was there,” Du Plessis told the UFC commentator.

“And he’s always been nice. It was before we were set to fight each other and um he was always super respectful and nice and I still feel that way. I think he’s a nice guy I think he has some demons,” he added. Du Plessis even defended Strickland’s trash talk in his interview with Cormier.

Du Plessis thinks Strickland has come into his own

Du Plessis also said that Strickland was not putting on a character when he talked all the trash that he did. The South African felt the middleweight champion had come into his own and had become more confident on the mic over the past year, which he thought was good for ‘Tarzan’.

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“You know I don’t think this is so much an act. I think he grew into being himself on the mic because he realized, ‘listen I’m saying all these stuff that I’m thinking anyway and I’m not getting too much sh** for it’. Yeah, and people started liking him or recognizing him for that. And I think that’s good for him. He found his character so that he can be himself a little bit more,” Du Plessis added.

What are your predictions for UFC 297?

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