Sean Strickland makes strong vow to any UFC fans surprised by friendly Dricus du Plessis interaction
Bad blood has dominated the build up to Sean Strickland's title fight with Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297.
The warring middleweights came to blows very publicly when in the crowd at UFC 296 in December, but things seem to have calmed down since then.
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In a rare moment of warmth between the 185lb fighters - captured in the third episode of the UFC's 'Embedded' vlog series - they appeared to bury the hatchet by shaking hands when bumping into one another.
Some fans were wondering if the rivals apparently quashing their beef would make for a less heated fight.
But 'Tarzan', in an Instagram story referencing their handshake, said: "Make no mistake me and Dricus are going to try to end each other."
Strickland defends his belt for the first time when he faces du Plessis at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Saturday night.
Referring back to the public brawl that got them ejected from the arena where du Plessis allegedly brought up Strickland's traumatic childhood, he threatened to 'f****** stab' him if he did it again.
However, Strickland insisted he didn't want to go to such extreme lengths as going to jail would mean both fighters 'spent eight weeks training for no f****** reason.'
"I actually sent him [Dricus] a message,” Strickland explained on his channel.
“‘Dricus, we’re gonna go try to murder each other, but if you bring that s*** up again, I will f****** stab you. Press conference [or] weigh in.’
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"He was cool about it," he said, explaining he messaged his rival privately on social media.
"I’m not telling you I don’t wanna fight you, Dricus. I’m not saying you’re not a good fighter. I’m just saying that’s a line that when crossed, it transcends fighting.
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“If I go to Canada and you bring that up, well guess what? I’m gonna go to jail, they’re gonna deport me and we spent eight weeks training for no f****** reason.”
Unsurprisingly, du Plessis caught wind of Strickland's concerning comments and addressed them directly at UFC 297 media day this week.
“I don’t know, that’s pretty intense,” he told reporters.
“I don’t know the legislation around here but that seems like Team Strickland needs to check their boy.
“When this whole thing occurred where he said ‘if you do that again’ he said he will kill me. He didn’t say stab me. When he said kill, I said OK, you’re probably going to shoot me then.
"When I saw a knife, I’m like no, that’s not going to work. You won’t touch me with that knife. I’ll knock you out way before you get to stab me.”
“Am I scared that he self-sabotages this fight? Sure," the 20-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC contender went on.
"That is something I’ve thought about, that he’d maybe try anything to get out of it.
"But no, no, no. For me, right now the last press conference was winning on the mic. That was winning against Sean Strickland at his own game.
"Right now this week, where we’re at, I’m not here to do that.
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"I’m here to be the middleweight champion of the world. My focus is on fighting and not making jokes or getting the crowd to laugh.
"That’s not why I’m here. I already won that battle. I won. Right now the battle is the one coming Saturday night.”
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