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This Saturday, Sean Strickland defends his middleweight title as one half of the UFC 297 headliner. He will take on streaking 185-pound juggernaut Dricus du Plessis, who carries South Africa's hopes and dreams for its very own UFC champion.
As well as the first-time challenger, the Jan. 20 bout is also of significant importance to Strickland.
When first announced, the clash wasn't regarded as particularly notable. To some, it was the UFC righting the wrong of trying to force du Plessis to take a title fight with then-reigning champion Israel Adesanya while injured. This time, the South African will not be making a quick turnaround. He is healthy and ready.
But for Strickland, the fight has taken on a different meaning. A pivotal moment at a 2024 seasonal press conference turned the bout into a sudden grudge match with an entirely new complexion.
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It is now the most important fight of Strickland's career.
Sean Strickland's feud with Dricus du Plessis
Sean Strickland has enjoyed a career rebirth, largely due to his brand of unhinged trash talk. He says whatever he wants, whenever he wants. There is no filter for 'Tarzan's' words to pass through. This has led to him going as low as possible with his talking points, whether the topic is social, political, or the personal lives of other fighters.
He is very often the trash talker, taking aim at his opponents with deeply personal insults. Not long ago, he eviscerated Ian Garry and the Irishman's marriage with Layla Machado in very public fashion. He thrills himself by getting under his peers' skin, like he famously did with Israel Adesanya.
The dynamic, however, is very different with Dricus du Plessis. When the two men went back and forth at the 2024 seasonal press conference, du Plessis promised to give Strickland such a brutal beating that it would remind the middleweight champion of the childhood physical abuse he suffered at his father's hands.
This triggered Strickland to such an extent that he was enraged for the remainder of the press conference, hurling homophobic slurs at du Plessis while growing visibly distressed. This only worsened as du Plessis laughed in response to a seething Strickland's trash talk.
Following the press conference, the pair even had a cageside brawl at UFC 296, instigated by Strickland. In the aftermath of the pair's melee, the middleweight champion took part in an interview with Theo Von, where he experienced an emotional upheaval, breaking down in tears.
He then stunned fans by claiming that aiming trash talk at another fighter's family and wife was off-limits. Given his previous accusations that Garry's wife was a sexual predator, among other things, this caused many to turn on Strickland and brand him a hypocrite who can't take what he dishes out.
After all, he is the same fighter who joked about Felipe Colares' death. The Brazilian was hit by a bus, and according to Strickland, his apparent inability to evade the collision is why he was not a UFC fighter.
He was also relentless in his mockery of Khalil Rountree for crying publicly and talking about mental health.
"I was like, 'Goddamn, dude. If you can't dodge a bus, that's why you're not in the UFC".
Check out Sean Strickland making light of Felipe Colares' death in the clip below:
Strickland has devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy crafting the persona of an unfiltered daredevil, whose views are so extreme that he claims women shouldn't be part of the American workforce. Now, however, he is being thought of as weak, in the same way he describes others as weak.
He cannot afford a loss at UFC 297.
He is heading into his first title defense with the label of a hypocirte against a hated rival. Strickland is in a do-or-die position. Had he lost against Adesanya, no one would have batted an eye because that's what everyone assumed was going to happen.
In fact, many were of the opinion that it was supposed to happen. This time, he is defending his title against the first opponent to get under his skin in a major way. While a loss to Adesanya would have been dismissed, a loss to du Plessis, given the context of their feud, would be catastrophic.
It could cause irreparable damage to his image. The trash talker with no limits getting so enraged by his opponent's trash talk that he has an emotional breakdown, starts a brawl, and imposes his own limits on trash talk is a bad enough look. But to then lose to that same opponent? Strickland can't afford that.
He'll emerge from UFC 297 looking better if he wins, because it will make his hypocrisy easier for the fans to forgive.
Sean Strickland's rite of passage as a champion and fighter
It was the great Matt Hughes, UFC Hall of Famer and former welterweight champion, who said that a fighter isn't a true champion until they defend their title. While becoming a champion is almost every fighter's dream, defending a title is of tremendous importance to one's legacy.
Despite his impressive performance against Israel Adesanya, there are still those who believe that Sean Strickland's triumph was the result of a fluke. So despite authoring the greatest upset in UFC middleweight history, he still isn't being given full credit for his efforts:
"I feel like Izzy lost the fight more than Sean Strickland won the fight... I feel like if you run that fight back, there's no way Sean Strickland gets his hand raised again."
Check out Ian Garry discrediting Sean Strickland's performance against Israel Adesanya in the clip below:
This is all magnified by the personal nature of his feud with Dricus du Plessis. He cannot afford to, off the back of what some have declared a fuke, lose to an opponent who also caused him to have an emotional breakdown in public when he has criticized others for doing the same.
Strickland must defend his integrity as a fighter and prove that he was not the Buster Douglas to 'The Last Stylebender's' Mike Tyson. He must legitimize himself by defeating one of the most in-form 185-pounders on the roster, as du Plessis is currently undefeated in the UFC, having recently TKO'd Robert Whittaker.
It would be a quality win that could cause Strickland's detractors to afford him greater respect as a fighter. A successful title defense is the only way to correct the narrative that he is a B-plus fighter who lucked his way into a championship win.
A successful title defense is a rite of passage, and he must see it through.
Furthermore, his bout with du Plessis represents another rite of passage. Many fighters have had defining rivalries with opponents they despise; Khabib Nurmagomedov had Conor McGregor, Jon Jones had Daniel Cormier, Anderson Silva had Chael Sonnen, and so on and so forth.
Strickland cannot fail against his first true nemesis inside the octagon, he must triumph and set the tone for his title reign.
