Sean Strickland might say he’s able to battle to the loss of life each time he steps contained in the Octagon, however he positive doesn’t battle like a man able to die.
After surrendering the middleweight world title a bit of greater than a 12 months in the past, Strickland will look to reclaim the crown when he meets reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 312 on February 8 in Sydney, Australia.
The primary time round, Strickland got here up quick on two of the three scorecards, struggling a carefully contested cut up resolution. The battle itself didn’t precisely set the world on fireplace — a irritating actuality contemplating the extraordinary buildup and Strickland’s demand that he and the South African star go into the bout able to “battle to the loss of life.” As an alternative, Strickland stayed on his again foot for a lot of the battle, leaning on his jab to try to outpoint ‘DDP’ all through the five-round affair.
Not too long ago, Strickland recommended that he and Du Plessis enter a pact forward of their sequel scrap in The Land Down Underneath.
“I’m going to wish you to be a f**king man and I’m gonna want you to face up, not go to your knees, and we’re gonna have to f**king strike like males,” Strickland demanded in a video. “I do know you wish to wrestle, and also you wish to f**kng choke individuals out and do some homosexual s**t, dude however I’ll make a pact with you. You make a pact with me that we f**kng rise up like f**king males and we settle this s**t like males.’’
Du Plessis says Sean Strickland is there to defend, not battle
Du Plessis was fast to dismiss any such pact with Strickland and criticized ‘Tarzan’ for continuously speaking an enormous sport through the pre-fight festivities however failing to stay as much as the hype as soon as he’s contained in the cage.
“My response was clear. ‘There are not any pacts between lions and males.’ That was my direct response,” Du Plessis mentioned. “However you recognize, that was precisely what we did the final time,” Du Plessis mentioned in an interview with Mark Bouris. “He mentioned, ‘To loss of life. Let’s go. Let’s battle to the loss of life.’ And the person threw a jab and a teep for 5 rounds.
“In that—it is a stat, you possibly can go examine it—for 23 minutes, I went ahead. He went ahead for 2 minutes. That could be a very clear indication of who’s there to battle and who’s there to defend.”
Of their first assembly, Du Plessis landed six of 11 tried takedowns however solely notched two minutes of management time. Nonetheless, these takedowns are possible what swung the choice in favor of ‘DDP’ contemplating Strickland landed 36 extra vital strikes through the contest.
Strickland additionally landed at the next proportion, connecting with 42% of his pictures whereas ‘DDP’ landed at a 38% clip.
