{"id":396107,"date":"2026-01-08T12:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396107\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:53:10","slug":"sean-strickland-blames-ufc-for-loss-to-dricus-du-plessis-at-ufc-312","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396107\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland Blames UFC For Loss To Dricus Du Plessis At UFC 312"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t \"\"<\/a>UFC 293 SYDNEY, Sean Strickland of the USA reacts after defeating Israel Adesanya of Nigeria during the Middleweight Title bout of UFC 293 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Sunday, September 10, 2023. ACHTUNG: NUR REDAKTIONELLE NUTZUNG, KEINE ARCHIVIERUNG UND KEINE BUCHNUTZUNG SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxAUSxNZLxPNGxFIJxVANxSOLxTGA Copyright: xDANxHIMBRECHTSx 20230910001839938690\t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n

Sean Strickland is in the news again\u2026 This time, talking in an interview with the Kairouz Bros,<\/a> the former UFC middleweight champion claimed that he felt pressured into taking the rematch with Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312, a rematch for the belt that the South African beat Strickland for previously.<\/p>\n

Sean Strickland claimed that despite the fact that he \u2018broke\u2019 his shoulder, the UFC insisted that he took the bout, which ultimately led to a 0-2 record against du Plessis. Stickland stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the Dricus fight, I was f*cking riding with Axell Hodges (a motocross athlete) and I broke my shoulder\u201d, claims the former middleweight champ.\u00a0 \u201cSo I was in Colombia getting stem cells on my shoulder and they hit me up for the fight and the thing with the UFC, you don\u2019t say no. They are pimps. You don\u2019t say no the masters. So I was kind of backed up into a corner taking that fight.
So taking this time off, letting my body heal has been amazing. This shoulder feels f*cking great. I do miss fighting and I miss performing, but it\u2019s been nice to be a fat, lazy, piece of sh*t for a while\u201d.<\/p>\n

Strickland hasn\u2019t competed since his loss to du Plessis and has been suspended<\/a> from action following an attack on a fighter taking on his teammate at a Tuff-N-Uff event. He is, however, scheduled to meet the in-form Anthony Hernandez<\/a> in the main event of a February fight night card in Texas.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"<\/p>\n

Sean Strickland\u2019s Comments Could Cause Future Issues<\/p>\n

If what Sean Strickland has said is true, that he was injured and forced into the rematch with du Plessis, it flags a huge issue. Aside from the obvious, the promotion forcing a fighter to compete while injured, risking potential further injury, it also brings into question the legitimacy of the pre-fight medical tests. How, if Strickland was so injured that he had to have stem cell treatment, was he able to pass the tests required to compete?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>UFC 312 SYDNEY, Sean Strickland of United States spits out blood during his fight against Dricus Du Plessis of South Africa in his middleweight title bout during UFC 312 event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Sunday, February 9, 2025. ACHTUNG: NUR REDAKTIONELLE NUTZUNG, KEINE ARCHIVIERUNG UND KEINE BUCHNUTZUNG SYDNEY NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxAUSxNZLxPNGxFIJxVANxSOLxTGA Copyright: xMARKxEVANSx 20250209118786660306<\/p>\n

Not only this, but there\u2019s the potential that, as a hampered fighter, not only could the American have gotten hurt in the octagon, but the UFC\u2019s insistence on him fighting has cost him millions of dollars. If he\u2019d have fought fit and healthy, there\u2019s a chance that he could have won the rematch, reinstating him as champion and, of course, being paid more in future fights.<\/p>\n

If Strickland was injured, it didn\u2019t seem to hamper him (visually) on fight night. He still had his awkward, herky-jerky style, winged punches from odd angles and threw shots that looked like they were never going to trouble the champion.<\/p>\n

On the night, he attempted 263 strikes, which is more than he attempted against Israel Adesanya when he won the belt, however, it was significantly less than he attempted against du Plessis in their first fight and also against Paulo Costa when the two fought in between Sean Strickland\u2019s two du Plessis fights. So maybe he was hampered slightly.<\/p>\n

A bold claim from Strickland, however, everything the American says is bold and has to be taken with a pinch of salt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC 293 SYDNEY, Sean Strickland of the USA reacts after defeating Israel Adesanya of Nigeria during the Middleweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-396107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}