Dricus Du Plessis recently addressed the possibility of a future rematch against Sean Strickland.
Du Plessis dethroned Strickland at UFC 297 this past January via split decision in a middleweight title fight that could have easily been scored either way. Strickland later claimed to have been robbed due to the fight taking place in “liberal” Canada.
Strickland has since been calling for a rematch, strengthening his case with a decision win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302 in June. Meanwhile, Du Plessis is set for his first title defense against former champ Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 on Saturday in Perth, Australia.
When it comes to a potential rematch against Strickland, Du Plessis says he doesn’t owe the American anything. The South African claims to be surprised by the controversy surrounding the scorecards, which according to him, shouldn’t have been split in the first place. However, that doesn’t mean Du Plessis will shy away from a rematch against Strickland if the logistics makes sense.
“I don’t owe Sean anything. The rules are pretty clear. It’s scored round-by-round. The fact that it was a split decision is the biggest shocking factor for me,” Du Plessis recently told Kevin Iole. “It was a very clear win for me. But for me, the biggest fight is the fight that I want, the fight the fans want to see. At the end of the day, they are the ones that pay for the tickets, buy the pay-per-views and they are the ones that watch this sport. So, obviously for me, the Adesanya fight was by far the biggest fight. It’s probably the biggest fight of the year, one of them at least. And the Strickland fight, sure. I mean if that’s the fight that makes sense, that’s the fight that I’m gonna fight.”
Du Plessis was in fact ready for an immediate rematch against Strickland and even claims to have informed the UFC, which chose to go with Adesanya.
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“I would have had no problem in doing the rematch,” he said. “I even told the UFC, I said there’s no problem if they want to do the rematch, if Izzy isn’t ready to fight or anything. Strickland rematch, I’m more than willing. Even in Vegas in his hometown, I have no problem with that. And they decided to go with the Adesanya fight, which is great for me.”
While Strickland is currently the No.1 middleweight contender, a clash between top contenders Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev set for UFC 308 in October poses a strong threat to his title aspirations. Du Plessis speculates the winner of that bout could make Strickland lose relevance in title conversations.
“After this, we’ll approach whatever comes,” he said. “But it will be interesting to see if Strickland’s even close to the conversation with Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker fight happening soon.”
