Sean Strickland attacked Dricus Du Plessis while attending the UFC 296 event. However, a major brawl was avoided as security officials intervened in time to separate the two. It turns out that UFC CEO Dana White knows the person responsible for the unfortunate incident.
Sean Strickland will defend his UFC middleweight title against Du Plessis at UFC 297 in January 2024. It is being speculated that the South African’s recent remarks about Strickland’s father may have triggered the incident.
While speaking at the UFC 296 post-fight press conference, White admitted that he could have avoided the brawl with a clever seating arrangement:
“So what kind of an a**hole sits Strickland next to Du Plessis? This a**hole! [Points to himself]. That’s true, yeah!”
He added:
“I do every seating assignment every week, yeah! How f***ing stupid is that? I mean, seriously! I don’t know what human you can sit Strickland next to, but definitely not Du Plessis! I don’t even know how I missed that.”
Watch Dana White admit to his mistake below:
White admitted that such incidents are part of the business but he is glad that the security intervened in time to stop Sean Strickland, who was taken backstage to be pacified. However, ‘Tarzan’ chose to leave the arena and not watch the rest of the event. Meanwhile, Du Plessis seems to be using the incident to get under the middleweight champion’s skin.
While speaking to Megan Olivi in a backstage interview, ‘Stillknocks’ took a dig at Sean Strickland for his apparent lack of power. The South African fighter also advised the champion to keep his composure when they fight:
“Be calm. You make mistakes when you’re not calm.”
Although an out-of-cage brawl is unfortunate, such incidents have helped the UFC in getting more people interested in the fights.
Watch Dricus Du Plessis’ interview below (1:18):