Dricus du Plessis recently spoke about a possible future rematch with Sean Strickland.
The middleweight title bout at UFC 297 in January could have gone either way, but du Plessis defeated Strickland by split decision to claim the title, with Strickland later claiming he was unfairly treated because the fight took place in “liberal” Canada.
Strickland has been demanding a rematch since then, strengthening his case with a decision win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302 in June, while du Plessis is scheduled to make his first title defense against former champion Israel Adesanya on Saturday at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia.
As for a potential rematch with Strickland, du Plessis says he doesn’t owe the American anything. The South African says he was surprised by the scorecard dispute and says they should never have been split in the first place. But that doesn’t mean du Plessis would hesitate to rematch Strickland if the logistics made sense.
“I don’t owe Shawn anything. The rules are clear. It’s scored round by round. The fact that it was a split decision is what’s most shocking to me,” du Plessis recently told Kevin Iole. “It was a clear win for me. But the biggest fights for me are the fights that I want, the fights that the fans want to see. At the end of the day, it’s the fans that pay for the tickets, that buy the pay-per-views, that watch this sport. So, for me, the Adesanya fight was by far the biggest fight. It’s probably the biggest fight of the year. At least, one of them. And the Strickland fight. If it’s a fight that makes sense, I’m going to take it.”
In fact, du Plessis claims he is ready for a rematch with Strickland as soon as possible and has informed the UFC of this, choosing instead to face Adesanya.
UFC 305: du Plessis vs. Adesanya, Saturday at 10pm ET on ESPN+. Order now! “I would have had no problem with doing the rematch,” he said. “I told UFC that if Izzy wanted the rematch, that’s fine, even if he wasn’t ready. If it’s a rematch with Strickland, I’d be happy to do it. I’d have no problem with it being in his hometown of Las Vegas. And they’ve decided to do the Adesanya fight, which is great for me.”
Strickland is currently the number one contender in the middleweight division, but a scheduled bout between top contenders Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 in October poses a major threat to his title ambitions, and du Plessis speculates that the winner of that bout could eliminate Strickland’s presence in the title race.
“I’ll respond to whatever happens after this,” he said, “but with the fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker coming up soon, it’ll be interesting to see if Strickland is any closer to being talked about.”
