Sean Strickland has taken issue with Dricus du Plessis' trash talk. However, the middleweight champion's recent assertion that certain topics, like an opponent's wife, are off-limits, has led countless fans questioning whether Strickland is a hypocrite given his own conduct while trash-talking.
There was a massive reaction on X/Twitter after fans took notice of a tweet quoting Strickland's disapproval of du Plessis's comments. Specifically, fans have lambasted Strickland for attacking Ian Garry's wife while also claiming that a fighter's wife should be spared from trash talk.
One fan brought up how Strickland had recently spoken about Garry's family:
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"He was literally talking about Ian Garry's wife and kids the other day."
Another fan also mentioned the middleweight champion's past remarks about Garry's wife:
"But didn't you talk about Ian's wife, Sean?"
The allegedly hypocritical nature of his conduct was further touched on in another comment, given the lengths Strickland has gone to in the past:
"Dude talks about other fighters' wives and has mocked MMA fighters within days of their tragic deaths. Then he goes on a podcast and literally cries about people being mean to him. He's in shambles."
One fan even said Strickland is perfectly capable of making his trash talk deeply personal but is himself unable to handle it when others do the same to him:
"He can dish it but can’t take it."
A collage of fan reactions can be seen below:
Now, he and du Plessis are headed for a grudge match at UFC 297, with Strickland's middleweight strap on the line.
Sean Strickland's current UFC run
Sean Strickland engineered quite possibly the greatest upset in UFC middleweight history when he dethroned Israel Adesanya for the divisional title at UFC 293. In doing so, he scored his third consecutive win inside the octagon, and became the champion at 185 pounds.
His win prior to capturing middleweight gold was a second-round TKO over Abusupiyan Magomedov, while the win before that was an impressive unanimous decision win over Nassourdine Imavov.