‘Two guys trying to kill each other’: Dricus, Strickland ready for ‘war’

Having battled it out for 25 minutes the last time they met, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title holder Dricus du Plessis is expecting another war when he puts his title on the line against American Sean Strickland.

The two will meet again at UFC312 in Sydney in the early hours of Sunday morning (SA time) to finally put to bed the question of who is the best between the two.

Their previous meeting was a five-round battle of attrition which left both fighters bloodied and bruised and ultimately saw DDP take the title from then champion Strickland via a split decision.

“A rematch was always going to happen. You can expect a war once again. Two guys who will never give up, two guys who are trying to kill each other. What else do you want? Isn’t that the perfect fight?” Du Plessis said at Thursday’s official UFC312 press conference.

‘What a real man does’

Strickland, who feels he won the last fight, also believes there is some unfinished business between the two.

“The Dutchman (Strickland’s own nickname for Du Plessis) fights like a maniac, but I won that fight and I am going to win this one, so let’s saddle up and get this done,” the American said.

Du Plessis did have some kind words aimed at Strickland at the press conference when each fighter was asked to say one nice thing about the other.

“I guess the man is at least willing to throw down. When someone disrespects you, you put them in their place and he is willing to do that and that is what a real man does,” Du Plessis said.

DDP concluded proceedings by saying he would be doing everything in his power to finish the fight inside the allocated five rounds.

“After a first fight like the one we had, it is very hard to predict, but I will be going out from the first bell to the last looking for that knockout,” he said.

Strickland echoed DDP’s words: “The man has a cinderblock for a head, he can take a lot of damage so we’re probably going to have a five round war. To the death,” the American concluded.