Sean Strickland is admitting that he was ‘boiling’ following the ‘off limits’ comments made by Dricus Du Plessis.
It was at a pre-fight press conference where du Plessis shouted at Strickland saying “you think your dad beat the sh*t out of you? Your dad doesn’t have sh*t on me … every childhood memory you have is going to come back when I’m in there with you”.
Following that threat, Sean Strickland while at the T-Mobile Arena watching UFC 296 attacked Dricus Du Plessis, who was sitting directly behind him.
Strickland (28-5 MMA) and Du Plessis (20-2 MMA) will headline UFC 297 in a middleweight title fight which takes place on Saturday, January 20th at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Strickland spoke on Theo Von’s ‘This Past Weekend’ podcast, sharing that he considered Du Plessis’s comments were ‘off limits’:
“There’s some things that are off limits. You don’t really talk about a man’s wife. You don’t talk about a man’s kids. And you don’t about a kid being abused. These things are all off limits. Once he crossed that …. I tried to f**king ignore it. I was boiling whenever Dricus (Du Plessis) goes on there and he jokes about that sh*t. Dude, you have no idea. I’ll f**king kill you. You have no idea. I think the issue is too, when you’re a kid and you’re made to be a victim your whole life, as an adult, you’re like never again. I’ll f**king kill you.”
‘Tarzan’ spoke about his life growing up in California saying:
“I was in probably third or fourth grade, I used to always sleep in my mom’s room because I thought my dad was going to kill my mom. So I would sleep by the door, I’d sleep under the bed. I’d sleep by the door because I thought my dad was going to kill my mom.”
Outlining one particular traumatic incident, the fighter shared that he called the police on his father:
“One day, it was so f**ed up, they just got in a bad fight, it was like third, fourth grade, my dad was like ‘f**k that, he’s not sleeping in here tonight, kick him out. So I like army crawled under the bed and I’m sleeping under the bed. I’m like laying under the bed as they’re fighting because I think my dad was going to kill my mom.”
“My dad gets on top of my mom and I remember he said ‘I’m going to f**king kill you tonight.’ Maybe it’s just rough sex, we don’t know at this moment. I’m under the bed and he starts strangling her. I get out and the only thing I can see is a guitar, I just f**king crack him in the head and call the cops. I run down the street to call the cops, he’s arrested, and my dumb ass mom bails him out of jail. I would say that’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Continuing, Sean Strickland further shared:
“I remember I used to just sit there and hug my mom’s leg in the kitchen. We had this little nook and she would go in the nook and I would sit there and all night long, I’m by the feet of my mom and my dad (is saying) ‘I’m going to f**king kill you.’ He would talk about burning her face with acid. I’m in elementary school. He’d always tell her ‘if you cheat on me’ — and she probably was cheating on him — ‘if you cheat on me, I’m going to cut you up and put you in a bottle of acid and bury you.’”
“Now you fast forward this, I don’t go to school. I’m up until 3 in the morning and I couldn’t stay awake in school. I stopped believing in God when I was in elementary school. I was laying in bed crying thinking about killing myself. There can’t be a f**king God here. How is there a God. Why would I be in this situation if there was a God? There ain’t no f**king god. My earliest memories. When I think back when I was a kid, I can’t recall one good memory, not one f**king good memory as a kid.”
Sean Strickland shared the trauma his childhood caused:
“It’s one of the things people don’t understand is trauma. People understand, when I talk about ‘I’d kill a man,’ it’s like you don’t understand. When you go through that level of trauma, you just greet the world differently.”
As for his attack on Du Plessis, Strickland said (h/t MMAFighting):
“I’m so happy they didn’t get it from a right angle, I bit him. I sh*t you not. Whenever he went into me, I remember at that moment, he tackles me and right there, you see my head goes up towards him, I started thinking how can hurt this man? I’m going take a f**king chunk out of him. I’m going to bite his f**king ear off.”
“I remember telling myself at that moment, ‘Sean, you can’t do that, that’s something you can’t walk away from.’ If you do that, then I’m going to jail.”
Concluding, the 32-year-old ended on a happier note:
“I joke about all this sh*t, as we’re laughing, you’ve got to joke about it. If you don’t, how do you process that kind of abuse? Life’s good, I make a lot of money now. I’m happy.”
Obviously Sean Strickland, like so many, suffered trauma in his younger years. Based on his own journey, triggers such as those made by Du Plessis, can induce anger. Do you believe such comments should be ‘off limits’?
Will you be watching UFC 297? Do you think Du Plessis can dethrone Strickland?
Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!
