Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis may have gone to war again at UFC 312, but there was no love lost between them. The duo met backstage after ‘DDP’ defended his belt and broke ‘Tarzan’s nose en route to a five-round unanimous decision victory. And Du Plessis admitted to Strickland that his eyes lit up as soon as he shattered his nose in the fourth round, and tried to tee off on it.

But Strickland braved the injury and continued, even trying to reset his nose. “Yeah dude I had broken my nose, and in the movies they just set it back,” ‘Tarzan’ said, to which Du Plessis admitted that he found his attempts hilarious for one simple reason. “I saw you trying and I was like ‘wrong way man, wrong way,'” ‘DDP’ said, laughing.

But Strickland bore no ill will to the South African champ, and had nothing but praise for him. “Hey man, god bless you, you’re a bad motherf***er. Best in the world. Best in the world. I gotta go to South Africa… Toughest African I’ve ever met,” the American told Du Plessis.

To be fair to Strickland, some suspect he came into the fight with a staph infection on his left arm, which may have affected his performance. However, the fight wasn’t even close and this new, careful and calculating Du Plessis just looked like he had ‘Tarzan’s number. But still, the American’s perseverance in the fight was admirable.

Dana White trashes media and commends Sean Strickland after UFC 312

At the post-UFC 312 presser, Dana White couldn’t stop praising Sean Strickland. The UFC CEO first blasted the Australian media for daring to criticize ‘Tarzan.’ The ‘Daily Telegraph Sports’, for example, had put Strickland on its front pages, pointing out how the American had bad-mouthed Aussies and asked someone to knock him out. But White wasn’t happy and termed the Australian media “weak human beings”.

More importantly, White was very happy with how Strickland fought and how stoic ‘Tarzan’ was throughout the fight, even after he broke his nose.

“Who is more focused, professional and solid in a fight than he is when he gets hurt? No sticking out the tongue or ‘no no, that didn’t hurt me’ or anything. The guy stays focused… Absolute professional the whole time, it’s actually fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that with a guy who acts the way he does leading up to fights,” he said. What do you think about Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis’ interaction backstage?