One of the biggest fights at UFC 296 wasn’t in the octagon.
Nope, it was in the crowd. But it was between two MMA fighters who will be facing each other in the future.
Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis will face each other at UFC 297 in January, and they had words for each other at a recent press conference. Oddly, the pair were seated near each other and came to blows in the crowd — MMA Junkie reports Dana White and security broke up the melee and Strickland was forced to leave.
But the fight didn’t stop there: The two called each other out on X (formerly Twitter):
I go hard on everyone I know this, izzy mouth feeding his dog, Dricus kissing his coach and grabbing his cup. Omally talking about sharing his wife in a podcast.
You're a man, on a world stage doing this in public
And what do you pick?
"You got abused as a kid ha"
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) December 17, 2023
Now I understand why you have a 33% finish rate, you hit like a girl, also 20 January the security won’t be there to save your life when I’m on top. 🤣🤣🤣 #rentfree
— Dricus Du Plessis (@dricusduplessis) December 17, 2023
And here’s footage of the fight:
The full incident between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis at #UFC296 tonight.
Bring on #UFC297 in January! pic.twitter.com/HQt0Uj1jiv
— UFC (@ufc) December 17, 2023