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Dricus Du Plessis is set to take part in the biggest fight of his career to date, as he is scheduled to face reigning middleweight champion Sean Strickland at UFC 297 on January 20 at the Scotiabank Arena in Ontario, Canada.
UFC 297 will be the premier mixed martial arts promotion's first pay-per-view (PPV) event of the year. This will also be the first time that Du Plessis competes in the main event under the UFC banner.
Dricus Du Plessis represents South Africa, and has, somewhat controversially, spoken on the importance of becoming the first champion to train out of Africa. He famously infuriated Israel Adesanya when he said that he wanted to be the first 'true African champion'.
The middleweight later clarified that he meant becoming a champion who was born in Africa and also lived and trained in the continent. Du Plessis was born in Hatfield, Pretoria, South Africa, and has spent a large part of his life there.
His origins, as his name suggests, can be traced back to France. Even today, his accent and manner of speaking reflect his ancestry. He has also been seen speaking Afrikaans, one of South Africa's official languages.
Dricus Du Plessis reveals that he and Sean Strickland have buried the hatchet ahead of UFC 297 fight
Speaking at the UFC 297 pre-fight press conference, Dricus Du Plessis told members of the press that he had exchanged cordial messages with Sean Strickland on social media.
Things between 'Stillknocks' and Strickland became extremely heated due to their back-and-forth at the UFC's seasonal press conference. Soon after, they ended up getting into a brawl at UFC 296.
However, things now appear to have changed. In Episode 3 of UFC 297's Embedded series, Strickland and Du Plessis were seen to be very cordial with each other.
At the pre-fight press conference, Dricus Du Plessis clarified things and said that Strickland had sent him a DM in which he requested Du Plessis to refrain from talking about Strickland's troubled childhood and past.
Du Plessis said:
"He (Strickland) said something along the lines of listen, this is what happened, I'm sorry for what I said about your coach and if there's anything that's crossing a line for you, I know we're selling a fight and all that, if there's anything out of line that I said that you want me to pull back, I'll apologize, I'll take back what I said... but if I bring up the thing with his childhood again, he said I'll kill you, and ruin your life and mine before we step into the cage."
Check out Du Plessis' comments here:
