Dricus Du Plessis didn’t hold back against Sean Strickland at UFC 312, walking him down for five straight rounds. The bashing hasn’t necessarily stopped after the event, as the champ has now blamed the challenger for the boos heard in the Qudos Arena in Sydney, Australia on Sunday.
The UFC middleweight champion disfigured Strickland’s face while defending his UFC middleweight title for the second time. The 31-year-old already had a split-decision victory over the American at UFC 297 and he made the rematch a one-sided beating.
Although UFC 312 was a striking battle for the most part, there were some moments of inactivity that led to boos from fans in the arena. Addressing this in an post-fight interview with FULL SEND MMA, “Stillknocks” said:
“Let me tell you this, when I heard the boos. Boo!, I don’t put up boring fights, I don’t have the ability because I don’t know how to fight like that. When I heard the boos, I, in my mind, 100% was towards him.”
He further added:
“And if it was towards me, then you are stupid! Anybody boo, because I will post it. The times that I went forward and the times I went backward. I went for that fight, I went forward the whole time. I tried and the boo, at a stage when I heard the boos, it drove me crazy. I went, I knew it wasn’t, they weren’t booing me or him, they were booing like something, and I was like come on dude, fight me! This was before the nose and all that. This was in the like, the first and second round, I was piecing him up. In the third round, it was like he was kind of just evading, and I mean, I can’t just be stupid about it and I got super frustrated because like I always say, people pay a lot of money to be here. I want to give the fans a show.”
Du Plessis did apologize to fans but made it clear that Strickland is to be blamed for any of their complaints regarding UFC 312:
“That irritated me, that makes me crazy and I have to go rewatch. If it was boring in any way, I am really sorry like, that’s not my fault, I went forward, I wanted to fight and you know, I know there were times where it was, I guess, not a war but it’s not my fault. I went forward, I wanted to fight.”
Alongside the UFC middleweight kingpin, almost the entire MMA community as well as his own coach Eric Nicksick have been critical of Strickland’s UFC 312 performance. Instead of adding new tools to his arsenal, he again relied on just jabs and teeps which Du Plessis was more than prepared for this time around.
