With the first PPV wrapped up, fans are now gearing up for the second one, UFC 312, featuring a title rematch between champion Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland. With less than three weeks to for the fight, the former champion appeared to have proposed a ‘pact’, regarding which du Plessis didn’t have a positive response, and fans appear to back the South African native on this one.

As we all know, Sean Strickland is currently one of the stand-up fighters on the entire UFC roster. He recently shared a video on social media, asking Dricus du Plessis to consider making their fight a stand-up encounter and avoid using any ground game. “Listen, Dutchman. I’m going to need you to be a f***ing man and I’m gonna need you to stand up, not go to your knees, and we’re gonna need to f***ing strike like men,” Strickland stated.

Sean Strickland further stated, “I know you like to wrestle, and you like to f**ng choke people out and do some g*y s*t, dude but I’ll make a pact with you.” However, Dricus du Plessis didn’t seem too interested in the so-called ‘pact’, and responded by stating, “There are no pacts between Lions and men.” 

How do you think fans reacted to this online? Well, they were heavily siding with Dricus du Plessis, despite Sean Strickland being one of the biggest fan favorites in the current UFC roster. Here’s what they had to say on Instagram.

‘It’s MMA, not boxing’, fans remind Sean Strickland as they backed Dricus du Plessis

There’s no questioning that grappling and wrestling exchanges during a fight don’t necessarily excite fans as many (casual observers) want to see fighters knocking each other out. Despite that, they appear to understand that the ground game is a part of mixed martial arts, and a couple of fans sounded off on Sean Strickland while giving the nod to Dricus du Plessis. They left comments like, “Dricus is right this is mma not kickboxing,” and, “That’s a good response by Dricus.”

Meanwhile, the fact that Sean Strickland was proposing the fight to go a certain way, they fear that he may not be able to survive ‘Stillknocks’ in their rematch. A couple of them chimed in with their predictions with comments like, “This is MMA Sean…or have we suddenly become Boxing?! Dricus R2 Sub,” and, “DDP by finish Rd 3 KO/Sub doesnt matter,” believing that a finish is in store for UFC 312’s headliner.

On the other hand, some Instagram users expressed that they don’t really get excited when they see the former middleweight champion in a fight. As a fan stated, “Why’s Strickland act like he puts on wars he’s one of the most boring fighters in the whole ufc,” despite Sean Strickland having 15 career finishes to his name.

Also, they believe Khamzat Chimaev deserved the title shot as one of them added, “Should of been Khamzat vs Ddp. Strickland is a joke,” given the run ‘Borz’ has been on in the UFC. Nevertheless, there were some fans who believe that ‘Tarzan’ should have won the fight at UFC 297 and it appeared that they’re rooting for him to beat Dricus du Plessis. “Everyone saying strickland is scared as if he never got robbed in the decision in their last fight.”

Do you agree with what the fans had to say? Also, do you agree with Dricus du Plessis’ response to Sean Strickland? Drop your comments below.