Now that UFC 311 is in the books, fans can turn their attention to the second Pay-Per-View of 2025; scheduled for only a few weeks’ time on Saturday, February 8.
That event, which takes place in Australia, will be headlined by a middleweight title rematch between Dricus Du Plessis and divisive former champion, Sean Strickland.
Ahead of their long-awaited grudge match Down Under, Strickland has now demanded that the South African match his latest offer of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ – but will it be accepted?
Sean Strickland offers new ‘pact’ to Du Plessis ahead of UFC 312
UFC 312 will be headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between Du Plessis and Strickland, with the South African currently 1-0 up after getting the nod in their razor-close first fight back in 2024.
If Strickland is to exact his revenge on February 8, he’ll need to keep the fight firmly within his preferred domain, on the feet, with Du Plessis having employed his wrestling skills in his most recent title win over Israel Adesanya.
In an attempt to goad the South African into a slugfest, Strickland has now offered a new ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to the reigning middleweight champion.
“Listen Dutchman, I’m going to need you to be a f****** man and I’m going to need you to stand up, not go to your knees and we’re going to need to f***** strike like men,” he stated via Full Violence.
“I know that you like to wrestle, and you like to f***** choke people out and do some g** s*** dude… But I’ll make a pact with you; you make a pact with me, that we stand up like f****** men and we settle this s*** like men.”
Du Plessis has yet to respond to Strickland’s offer of a ‘pact’, although we doubt that ‘Stillknocks’ will be provoked into a stand-and-bang type of fight – especially with his ultimate goal in MMA being so close.
UFC 312: Du Plessis vs Strickland goes down in just a few weeks’ time, but what do two of their former opponents think about their incoming rematch?
Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker discuss UFC 312 title fight
Ex-middleweight champions Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker don’t have the best of records against either DDP or Strickland, with a combined record of 0-3.
Whittaker and Adesanya have been training together ahead of The Last Stylebender’s return to action at UFC Fight Night: Saudi Arabia and recently sat down for a conversation about the UFC 312 main event.
“Even though Sean will definitely try to walk him down again, the one thing about Dricus is [that he’s] just so awkward,” stated Adesanya, via the MMArcade Podcast.
“He’s just weird man, he’s like the best s*** fighter in the world, he’s so good that I can’t even fault him for it.”
In turn, Whittaker argued that he doesn’t see the second fight going any other way than the first; questioning whether Strickland has the ability to adjust to Dricus Du Plessis’ weird fight style.
“People will argue with me saying it was controversial anyway, and I thought so too, but that was when he was still champion, and he still lost a controversial [decision] to the challenger.
“I don’t see Sean fighting any different way, that’s how Sean fights and that’s how Dricus fights – I don’t know, maybe Dricus gets more takedowns because he had decent enough success with it, but honestly, I just don’t see how Sean does anything different to get the victory.”