UFC welterweight champion Sean Strickland attacked his next opponent Dricus du Plessis in the stands during tonight’s UFC 296 event in Las Vegas and you can watch how it all went down in the video below.
Strickland had been shown standing close to the Octagon with his du Plessis a couple of rows behind during the pay-per-view broadcast, with the champ turning around and motioning as if to shoot his rival, who responded by shadow-boxing.
However, after the cameras cut back to the event footage would later show that du Plessis continued to taunt Strickland, who proceeded to politely ask Alexandre Pantoja’s children to step aside from blocking his route to du Plessis.
He then launched into an attack on the South African, standing up on a chair and raining down a series of punches and elbows on du Plessis, who responded by trying to take him down before they were separated, with Strickland then being escorted out of the building.
Remarks du Plessis had made about Strickland’s troubled childhood during a UFC 2024 press-conference on Thursday appear to have been the champion’s motivation for the attack.
“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,” Strickland wrote on X after the brawl.
“You’re a man, on a world stage doing this in public And what do you pick?
“You got abused as a kid ha”
For his part du Plessis spoke to the UFC on the post-fight broadcast and appeared to be no worse for wear, and was unapologetic for his previous comments, insisting that Strickland is always giving other people a hard time, but is easily triggered when the same thing is done to him.
The two will get a chance to settle their differences in the Octagon on January 20th when they headline UFC 297 in Toronto, Canada.
