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On Sunday night, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will hold its first numbered tournament in 2024. As part of the main event of the evening in Toronto, Canada, South African Dricus Du Plessis will try to take the belt from middleweight champion Sean Strickland, one of the most daring representatives of the main MMA promotion in the world.
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We wrote about the difficult character of the American back in the spring of last year, when Tarzan (the nickname of the MMA fighter – editor's note) was just approaching a title chance. Then no one could even think about Sean’s sensational victory over the star Israel Adesanya! In that text we talked about everything:
- the neo-Nazi views of the athlete in his youth;
- a serious accident that almost buried Sean’s career;
- jokes about religion;
- absolute lack of tolerance;
- criticism of US politics and American society.
We also mentioned that Strickland’s father, who died of cancer, beat the unfortunate boy. This topic became central to the American’s conflict with his future rival Du Plessis.
During a press conference dedicated to the 297th edition of the tournament, the South African fighter used his ace in his sleeve and delivered a painful blow to the belt holder.
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"You think your father beat the crap out of you? He doesn’t hold a grudge against me… All your childhood memories will come back when I’m with you in the octagon,” Du Plessis told the champion.
There was no fight during the sterdown – everything broke out in the stands of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the final event of 2023 took place. In the main fight of the evening, Briton Leon Edwards defeated American Colby Covington, but the fight turned out to be so boring that it was overshadowed by the fight between Sean and Drikus, who were seated very close… Later, UFC CEO Dana White took responsibility for what happened. And he even called himself a “moron.”
What happened at the press conference, and then at the tournament in Vegas, seriously affected the psychological state of the fighter. On New Year's Eve, Sean became a guest on Theo Vaughn's podcast and there, talking about the nightmares he experienced at an early age, he literally burst into tears. The video quickly went viral on social networks – fans took a different look at the rude talker and realized that a much more ambiguous personality was hiding inside.
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“As a child, I slept in my mother’s room because I thought my father would kill her. One day they got into a big fight, I was either in the third or fourth grade… My father shouted that he would kill her and began to strangle my mother. I saw the guitar, took it and hit my father on the head… And then I called the police. My father was arrested, but my stupid mother bailed him out. I also remember how, as a child, I sat on the kitchen floor and simply hugged my mother’s leg. And then her dad showed up saying that he was going to (rape) her. And burn her face with acid,” the athlete laid out as if in spirit.
Sean admitted that back in elementary school he stopped believing in God and, lying in bed, struggled with the most terrible thoughts about how to get rid of endless suffering.
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" In second grade, I fell asleep on my desk and the teacher came over and made me get up. I said, fuck you! Andthe school system dubbed me a bad child. And I just lay down on the floor and fell asleep… They didn’t understand that I didn’t sleep until three in the morning,” the champion lamented, drowning in a swamp of memories.
By the way, after the scandalous fight, the American had a conversation with Du Plessis. He sent the South American a message in which (in a respectful manner) he threatened his opponent with violence if his childhood tragedy was used again as a promotion for the fight. This is what the UFC champion's ultimatum was:
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"Dude, listen. In the cage we will try to kill each other. But if you bring this up again, I'll fucking stab you with a knife. I'm not saying I don't want to fight you. I don't deny that you are a good fighter. I'm simply saying that there is a line, the crossing of which takes us beyond the struggle. If I go to Canada and you bring this up, guess what will happen. I will go to jail and be deported. It turns out that we will spend eight weeks of training in vain".
Strekland is sure: there are forbidden topics that cannot be discussed. Other people's wives, children and violence against them… This is where the undefeated Irishman Ian Machado Harry caught the champion: Conor McGregor's successor accused Sean of hypocrisy, who ridiculed the young welterweight because of his wife, who is much older than the athlete.
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Perhaps the American really should be more consistent. However, he certainly cannot be blamed for vindictiveness: before the first defense of the belt, Strickland crossed paths with Du Plessis in the hotel lobby and, shaking the South American’s hand, hugged his colleague in the fighting workshop as a sign of no complaints.
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