UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns had a front-row seat for Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis.
Earlier this month at UFC 296, ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Stillknocks’ famously got into a brawl. It wasn’t terribly surprising, given their heated press conference earlier in the week. In the post-fight press conference, Dana White took the blame for the incident and explained that he shouldn’t have sat the middleweights so close.
While many fighters were around for the incident, none were closer than Gilbert Burns. As many quickly figured out, the Brazilian’s wife and kids were in the crowd. In fact, they were mere feet away from Sean Strickland’s fight with Dricus du Plessis. Prior to the brawl, the middleweight champion politely asked them to move.
Speaking on the JAXXON Podcast, Gilbert Burns gave his side of the story. In the interview with Rampage Jackson, the welterweight explained that nobody really won in the fight. However, he did acknowledge that Sean Strickland asked his family to move before fighting, which he appreciated. He also stated that ‘Tarzan’ gave him a heads up about what might happen, earlier in the night.
Still, the brawl involving Dricus du Plessis could’ve gotten much uglier than it was. According to Gilbert Burns, as the two were brawling, their legs got caught in the ringside seats. Luckily, no major injuries happened.
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(via Zuffa LLC)
Gilbert Burns gives his side of Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis’ fight
“He walk in, he already had the thing in his head.” Gilbert Burns stated, recalling his side of the UFC 296 brawl involving Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis. “He said ‘Your family is here, if I do something, I’ll give you the heads up’. I said okay, I thought he was joking. When the thing started going down, he looked at me and said ‘Now’. He asked my son and my wife to move, so I just got in front of them.”
He continued “He went out like crazy. The thing people didn’t see is when you don’t sit, the seat goes up. He pushed the seat down, but when he stepped, he stepped too much forward, and the seat kind of fell through. That’s why they started scrambling and grappling a little bit. Then, the guy kind of took him down, but [Sean’s] leg was kind of locked in the chair. I was so scared with his chair, I was hurrying to get his foot out of the thing. But yeah, that was my family right there.”
“…They hit each other a little bit, but people didn’t see that side of the camera.” Gilbert Burns concluded. “It was nothing too clean, even when Strickland got up. The guy was kind of holding him, it was nothing clean… It was kind of like a little rush, the guy fell on top of him and throw a couple of shots. It was a draw.”
What do you make of these comments from Gilbert Burns? Are you excited for Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis? Who do you got in that middleweight title clash?
