Dricus Du Plessis says he does not ‘owe’ Sean Strickland a rematch

UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis is down to rematch Sean Strickland, but doesn’t feel obligated to.

Du Plessis (21-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) dethroned Strickland (29-6 MMA, 16-6 UFC) to become middleweight champion in a close fight at UFC 297 – a fight Strickland is adamant he won.

Du Plessis makes his first title defense against Israel Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in the UFC 305 headliner Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia. The South African fighter isn’t sure why there’s any controversy surrounding his title win over Strickland.

“I don’t owe Sean anything,” Du Plessis told Kevin Iole. “The rules are pretty clear: It’s scored round by round. The fact that it was a split decision is the biggest shocking factor for me. (I thought) it was a very clear win for me. For me, the biggest fights is the fight I want – the fight the fans want to see.

“At the end of the day, they are the ones that pay for the tickets, buy the pay-per-views. They are the ones that watch this sport, so obviously for me, the Adesanya fight was by far the biggest fight that we could do. It’s probably the biggest fight of the year – one of them, at least.”

Since losing his belt to Du Plessis, Strickland rebounded with a win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302. He plans on sitting out until he’s granted a title shot, but Du Plessis isn’t sure if that’s the wisest move.

“The Strickland fight? Sure,” Du Plessis said. “If that’s the fight that makes sense, that’s the fight I’m going to fight. I would have had no problem in doing the rematch. I even told the UFC there’s no problem. If they want to do the rematch and Izzy isn’t ready to fight – Strickland rematch. I’m more than willing – even in Vegas, his hometown.

“I have no problem with that, and they decided to go with the Adesanya fight, which is great for me. Either way, it would have been great because both of them were big fights. Myself and Strickland would be even bigger the second time around, but this fight is huge. We’ll approach whatever comes after this, but it will be interesting to see if Strickland’s even close to the conversation with Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker fight happening soon.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 305.