DC: Du Plessis’ people believe Strickland is ‘an afterthought,’ fight won’t be competitive

Daniel Cormier believes Sean Strickland continues to be overlooked as champion.

Strickland captured the UFC middleweight title in one of 2023’s most shocking results with a five-round domination of Israel Adesanya in September. The 32-year-old champ is now set to make the first defense of his belt on Jan. 20 against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297, however Du Plessis isn’t the only person eyeing Strickland’s title. UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards recently teased the possibility of pursuing a second belt at middleweight against the Strickland vs. Du Plessis winner, though Edwards later clarified that two-division glory is more of a future goal rather than an immediate one.

In Cormier’s eyes, though, Edwards’ comments are telling — and he believes Edwards isn’t the only person viewing Strickland as an easier path to a UFC championship.

“Conor McGregor was the first person to [win two belts] in 2016. It had never happened,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Since then, Amanda [Nunes], myself, Henry [Cejudo], [T.J.] Dillashaw’s tried, [Alexander] Volkanovski’s tried, Izzy’s tried — so many people have tried now, to do it when it was something that was so unheard of. And I believe that now these guys at 170 [pounds] are like, they feel like Sean Strickland is beatable. I talked to people close to Du Plessis — they believe it is an afterthought that he gets through Sean Strickland.

“Like, they believe that he is so far ahead of Sean Strickland that it will not be competitive. I don’t know how you could watch that last fight [against Adesanya] and feel like that.”

Strickland’s rise as champion was one of the most unexpected developments of 2023. A former welterweight, Strickland has been a UFC fighter since 2014 and was mostly just another face in the crowd for the majority of his run. He entered the year reeling from back-to-back losses against Alex Pereira and Jared Cannonier, the former of which was a brutal first-round knockout, however he completely turned around his career with a 3-0 campaign that saw him capture gold and claim top honors as MMA Fighting’s 2023 Fighter of the Year.

Cormier thinks people are still focusing on the old Strickland rather than the version that outclassed Adesanya and emerged as an unlikely titleholder.

“When I see, for years, Kamaru Usman refusing to go up to 185, partly because he’s friends with Izzy, but even when Alex [Pereira] became the champion, there was no talk of [Usman] going to 185,” Cormier said. “Sean Strickland becomes the champ now and Leon Edwards is immediately talking about going to 185, Kamaru Usman was immediately talking about going to 185. What is that? Like, why he is — honestly, it feels like they feel like there’s a beatable champion, so I’m going to take my shot. Why is Sean Strickland overlooked still?”

Ultimately, Strickland will be able to prove himself as more than just a one-hit wonder when he faces Du Plessis in the first UFC pay-per-view of 2024.

Du Plessis has been an unbeatable force thus far in the UFC, racking up six consecutive wins with five finishes, punctuated by a second-round demolition of Robert Whittaker. The South African contender has also proven himself to be quite the irritant — Du Plessis and Strickland nearly came to blows at their pre-fight press conference in December, then actually came to blows one day later when they brawled in the stands at UFC 296.

“He’s always in the middle of something,” Cormier said of Strickland.

“I really don’t know [how that crowd brawl happens]. I don’t know how you miss that with him. There are fighters that you can put sitting next to someone they’re going to fight down the line. Sean Strickland doesn’t seem like that type of fighter.”