Exclusive: Dricus du Plessis answers if Sean Strickland really bit his ear Mike Tyson-style during UFC 296 scuffle 

Dricus du Plessis recently revealed whether Sean Strickland went for a Mike Tyson-esque ear bite during their brawl at UFC 296 last month. The South African fighter admitted that he could feel something on his left ear and recalled what exactly happened during their scuffle.

Strickland is set to defend the 185-pound championship against du Plessis at UFC 297 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto this weekend. Ahead of their fight, the two participated in the UFC's season press conference event last month and exchanged some ugly, personal jabs at each other.

While Strickland distastefully joked about du Plessis' relationship with his coach, 'Stillknocks' brought up the American's volatile relationship with his father and joked about his abusive childhood. The two unsurprisingly came to blows at the UFC 296 event, which they both attended and had to be separated by security.

Alexander Volkanovski's BJJ coach, Craig Jones, later claimed he saw Strickland trying to bite du Plessis' ear during the melee.

In a recent exclusive interview with Andrew Whitelaw for Sportskeeda MMA, du Plessis opened up about the incident and stated that he wasn't sure about being bitten. He said:

"I could feel something like that... I remember thinking, 'Did this guy try to bite me?' Because he was grabbing my head and pulling it down to the side, and I just shoved him to the floor, I guess that was the biting action. But no, I didn't have any marks. I think it was this [left] ear."

Catch Dricus du Plessis' comments below (4:40):

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Sean Strickland admits to trying to bite Dricus du Plessis during UFC 296 brawl

While Dricus du Plessis may not have felt Sean Strickland's teeth dig into his ear, 'Tarzan' recently admitted that he was going for a bite during their altercation. The UFC middleweight champion confessed that du Plessis' comments about his father affected him, and he wanted to get his revenge on the South African fighter.

During a recent appearance on Theo Von's This Past Weekend podcast, Strickland stated that some topics should be off-limits during trash-talking and was glad that the cameras didn't catch him trying to bite his next opponent. He said:

"I’m so happy they didn’t get it from a right angle, I bit him. I s*** you not. Whenever he went into me, I remember at that moment... I started thinking, 'How can I hurt this man? I’m going to take a f****** chunk out of him. I’m going to bite his f****** ear off."

Catch Sean Strickland's comments below (1:39:22):