Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman have made predictions on the potential outcome of this weekend’s rematch at UFC 312 between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis.
Strickland dethroned Israel Adesanya to become the middleweight king at UFC 293. However, his reign did not last long as he was beaten by du Plessis at UFC 297 by a razor-close split decision.
After the loss, ‘Tarzan’ turned to winning ways with a split decision win against Paulo Costa at UFC 302. Meanwhile, ‘Stillknocks’ defended his strap at UFC 305 with a win over former middleweight king Adesanya.
In the first outing between Strickland and du Plessis, there were a couple of very close rounds. However, the South African was ahead in the judge’s scorecard and secured a win by split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47).
On the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Cejudo chose Dricus du Plessis as the winner in his books and said:
“Dricus’ last fight with Israel really impressed me dude. He is gonna have to rely on that wrestling. I think he is just more well rounded bro. And I think him beating out champions the way he has, his confidence has only risen. And the fact that he has already been there 25 minutes with Sean we know that Sean is not going to change. I gotta go with DDP.”
Usman who has previously squared off and beaten ‘Tarzan’ in a welterweight bout at UFC 210, weighed in on the fight and said:
“I just think [Dricus du Plessis] he needs to be a little more accurate… Sean Strickland can hurt you if he can land flush. Sean tends to be very head strong in wanting to get out of his own way. And him not wanting to not change anything in his style I think might hinder him from being champion. So I’m gonna have to go with DDP on this one. “
Check out Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman’s thoughts on UFC 312: Dricus du Plessis vs Sean Strickland 2 (11:58):