Du Plessis Vs. Strickland Predictions – ‘I Like His Chances’

Dricus Du Plessis defends his UFC Middleweight Title against Sean Strickland at UFC 312 this weekend.
Du Plessis makes the second defense of his belt, which he won from Strickland in the first fight at UFC 297. He secured a controversial split decision win to end Strickland’s reign after in his first defense.
Du Plessis then went on to defend his title successfully by submitting Israel Adesanya in his next fight at UFC 305. Meanwhile, Strickland bounced back to earn another title shot after defeating Paulo Costa at UFC 302.
While it was declared a split decision, most of the MMA community had Strickland winning easily by a unanimous decision. The pair have been firing verbal shots at each other in the run-up to this rematch. Strickland has challenged Du Plessis to meet him in the middle and exchange rather than going to the ground, which he did against Adesanya. Du Plessis will have to avoid falling into Strickland’s mind games, knowing that Sean can get into a fighter’s head. Here is how MMA fighters thought the fight would play out.
Predictions
“Well, obviously Sean’s one of my guys, and I’m a big Sean fan. He’s an amazing competitor. He’s an amazing guy in the gym, a great training partner. I mean as somebody he is part of your team. He has everything you want there. I like his chances in that fight. I’m going to be behind him 100%. I’m glad it’s happening in February, and that he’s getting back in there,” Randy Courte
“I mean Sean sucks, right? I think all he does is teeth kick you. So I think Dricus is going to have a better game plan. He’s gonna figure out that all this guy does is teeth kick you and he’s gonna hit him. He’s gonna make it a lot easier this time. 100% like I said, I got these two are fighting. I fight the winner of that,” Belal Muhammad
More Predictions
“Sean really busted him up with the jab last time on the front kicks, and then when Sean took a round off or took a step back, then Dricus came back. So if Sean can keep the pressure on him for five rounds, I’ll give Sean a big chance. But I think Dricus can mix it up more. It always feels to me like when I watch the fights Sean is in, if you can just get a couple takedowns in, it’s going to be an entire different, different ball game, because it’s, he’s so straight up,” Reindeer de Ridder
“I don’t see anything different, you know. [And] I mean, I don’t see anything different in the second fight, mainly because Dricus is going to continue with that same tenacity, that same fire, that same energy. I just see him doing the same thing he did before as he’s done, doing the same thing he did before. So, yeah,” Ode Osbourne
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