Dricus Du Plessis shut down Sean Strickland completely last weekend, who talked a big game during the press conference, planning to fight “to the death,” but saw himself getting outclassed to the brim. The South African juggernaut even broke the former champion, well, his nose, to be exact, and silenced all his critics once and for all. However, Du Plessis doesn’t think he had a perfect performance on the back of something he did wrong at UFC 312.

Strickland may have been out-fought by the reigning champion, but he never stopped pressing forward. According to the South African, ‘Tarzan’ was relentless in his pursuit of victory, pushing the pace and looking for openings in every round. His corner repeatedly spurred him to go for the kill as each round came to a close, but for Du Plessis, it was nothing unexpected. Having faced high-pressure situations before, he remained composed and unfazed by Strickland’s aggression.

“I know Sean Strickland by now. He goes for it and tries to end the round with a win. And that [last] 30 seconds, he would throw those haymakers and I have to tell you, I can take those all day,” Dricus du Plessis told ESPN. The 31-year-old added that Strickland did find even a bit of success throughout their five-round slugger, but then again, it didn’t matter enough because the champ was landing some heavy shots himself.

However, if we take a look at the statistics, Du Plessis missed a lot. Out of his 316 total attempts to land a blow on Strickland, ‘Stillknocks’ could only manage to get 46 percent of them right, and he blamed himself for his lack of patience and calculation. “He’s a hard guy to catch even when I broke his nose. I went for it and that was the one mistake I made. It was not staying calm. I just went crazy.”

The middleweight champion even assessed himself, rating his performance a 7 out of 10, hoping to do better in the future. But while Dricus Du Plessis smiled his way out of the Qudos Arena last weekend, Sean Strickland certainly wasn’t. But guess what? He’s still in great spirits as he revealed in a statement following his unanimous decision loss.

Sean Strickland’s statement after losing to Dricus Du Plessis for the second time

Sean Strickland, with his relentless trash talk over Dricus du Plessis, really got the whole Australian crowd behind him, similar to when he fought Israel Adesanya. There were a lot of expectations from fans since they got to see him deliver a masterclass in his last fight in the country. After he failed to beat Du Plessis, Strickland made sure to thank his supporters and assure them that losing a fight is way more normal than losing a job.

“I’m so grateful for you guys’ support. You guys are so awesome, win or lose, you guys always ride and I appreciate you Dricus, f—ing hats off, hell of a fight, broke my nose in six places,” Sean Strickland stated in a video he posted on social media. “Losing sucks, but we all lose in life, and I talk to so many people whether they lose their job, their girlfriend breaks up with them, and they just find themselves in this hole, but me, I love the misery.”

While we wait to see what’s next for Sean Strickland, it will be interesting to see how Dricus Du Plessis does in his next title defense, since Khamzat Chimaev seems to be in line for a shot at his belt. Let us know what you think in the comments down below.