Dricus Du Plessis disagrees with Dana White’s recent criticism towards him.
Du Plessis was slated to challenge for the middleweight title at UFC 293, but couldn’t make it to the fight due to an injured foot. White wasn’t pleased with Du Plessis turning down the short-notice turnaround after he knocked out Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July.
Sean Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) got the call instead, and did the unthinkable by dethroning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (24-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) by unanimous decision in this past Saturday’s UFC 293 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Du Plessis thinks he should be next, and wants people to give him the benefit of the doubt for not fighting at UFC 293.
“I’ve been ready to address every situation of what might happen this weekend, and what the UFC might say, what Dana might say – obviously, him not being very happy that I turned down a fight on seven weeks’ notice with an injury, which I don’t really understand,” Du Plessis said in an interview with FightWave.
“But at the end of the day, it’s business for them and you have got to respect that. But if I can look at my track record, I know for a fact that I’m not somebody that turns down fights if it’s not a good enough reason. I’ve taken fights on short notice multiple times. Every time they phone, I say, ‘Yes, let’s go.’ This time around just wasn’t possible with the injury and short notice.”
Strickland came up big as an underdog, something Du Plessis experienced himself very recently.
“I’m happy for Sean Strickland. I’m happy that Izzy got a little bit of a hiding, although I would have loved to be the guy to give it to him,” Du Plessis said. “There’s Sean Strickland: Just goes to show, I feel he was in a very similar situation to me and Robert Whittaker where nobody gave me a shot. Nobody gave me a chance. I know Strickland didn’t even give me a chance, and I didn’t give him a chance in this fight.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.
