Dricus du Plessis gives no-holds-barred reaction to Alex Pereira allegedly 'hating' him, according to Sean Strickland: "I already have enough friends"

Dricus du Plessis recently responded to Sean Strickland's claim that Alex Pereira hates him and addressed the Brazilian cornering 'Tarzan' in their rematch. The South African fighter dismissed being worried about Pereira's feelings toward him and cast doubts on Strickland's comments.

'Stillknocks' is set to face Strickland in their middleweight title rematch at UFC 312 in Sydney this weekend. Strickland notably lost the title to du Plessis via a razor-sharp split decision at UFC 297 last January. Ahead of their rematch, it was revealed that Pereira will be in Strickland's corner again. Strickland also revealed that 'Poatan' despised du Plessis for some unknown reason.

Nevertheless, du Plessis remains unfazed. In an interview with AgFight, the reigning UFC middleweight champion addressed Strickland's claims. Clarifying that he considers Pereira to be among the greatest combat sports athletes ever, du Plessis said:

"[Pereira] was also in the corner in the last fight. And that doesn’t make any difference to me. And the same applies to this one. I don’t think he hates me. If he does, I don’t know why. Sometimes you see a person and you just don’t like them, maybe that’s it. Maybe he doesn’t like my face, or my attitude, I don’t know. But I don’t think he hates me."

He continued:

"We’ve never even spoken. I asked him for a picture, I think, once. I consider Alex an incredible fighter, one of the greatest that ever walked the planet Earth, one of the greatest combat athletes in history. But if he hates me, I don’t care. I have enough friends already." [H/t: AgFight]

Pereira has previously called for a fight against du Plessis at middleweight and has accused the South African fighter of ducking him.

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Dricus du Plessis earns high praise from Sean Strickland ahead of their UFC 312 rematch

Despite their heated rivalry, Sean Strickland recently lauded Dricus du Plessis' tenacity and heart. The American pointed out that du Plessis displayed incredible levels of grit in his fights and refused to give up regardless of the situation.

In an interview with ESPN MMA, the former UFC middleweight king heaped praise on his upcoming opponent and said:

"What I tell people at the highest levels of competition, motherf**kers break. I don't break, he doesn't f**king break. You think at some point a round is going to come where he's going to get off the stool and be like, 'I don't want to be here'."

He continued:

"You can blind him in the eye, break his f**king nose and he's going to get up, me included, and we're going to f**king fight. At our level, we don't f**king break and we will die for what we want so that's why it comes down to my skills."