Sean Strickland doesn’t have a line he won’t cross when trash-talking opponents. However, before UFC 297, Strickland threatened to knife middleweight contender Dricus du Plessis after the latter mentioned his difficult upbringing.
Both have essentially resolved their differences, even if they got into a confrontation in the UFC 296 crowd. Du Plessis has said that he won’t use Strickland’s background as justification for another attack.
Naturally, Strickland has come under fire for saying that du Plessis went too far in his remarks, even if nothing is out of the boundary for the reigning UFC middleweight champion.
Strickland has targeted Ian Machado, Garry, and his wife. He’s spoken a lot of offensive things, mostly disparaging other UFC competitors, including things that are sexist and homophobic.
According to UFC welterweight Matt Brown, Strickland is solely responsible for his actions.
Matt Brown Comments
In The Fighter vs. The Writer, Matt said, people like Strickland can cut very deep sometimes, he pushes the limits and if he’s not expecting anything back, that’s a bit naive.
You try to go low on someone, but they will find a way to get even lower, that’s just a can of worms that he has opened. Is there anything that is out of boundary? Regarding the entertainment aspect of things, why are you saying it if it’s not entertaining?
If you’re saying it to get under someone’s skin, that’s not his thing, and he doesn’t want to hear it. He understands why people do it, but he is not into it.
Brown is aware of how easily trash talk can get out of hand when it concerns two fighters who were more than simply rivals. Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, for example, got into a heated verbal exchange after being close friends and teammates for several years.
Although Strickland and du Plessis are not friends and have no shared history, they have insulted each other in a very hurtful way.
Trash-talking is not something new
Although trash talk is nothing new in combat sports, Brown saw a significant change in how it was conducted following Conor McGregor’s UFC arrival. The brazen Irishman went for opponents with trash talk like a knife, and it worked a lot of the time.
The finest illustration was perhaps McGregor’s constant jabs at Jose Aldo. Due to the intense hatred between them, Aldo charged forward during their battle like a bull, and in just 13 seconds, the heavy-handed McGregor brutally knocked him out with a single blow.
Although Brown believes that many fighters have attempted to emulate McGregor, even the outspoken former UFC champion who won two divisions has recently found it difficult to properly take it to his opponents without going below.
Brown said Conor has lost his ability
Brown continued, even Conor lost his creativity, he (Brown) thinks that he has to get more extreme to get into his head, and from here on it is just the race to the bottom.
Du Plessis committed that he wouldn’t use Strickland’s early years as a point of contention going forward with UFC 297. Whether it’s personal or not, he said, none of the trash talk affects him.
Similar to Brown, he doesn’t think it’s necessary to undermine opponents and doesn’t particularly care if they try to do the same to him.
Brown said maybe his mentality is a little off, but he has been in many fights, so when someone says almost anything to him, he won’t feel like killing him worse, he wants to murder him already.
What the other person says doesn’t matter. He said he was going to walk in there and try his hardest to blow the head off, no matter what. That entire “art of war” mindset he doesn’t entirely understand, but he is trying to do that.
He continued that they are professional sportsmen, and want to see it done more elegantly. It makes more sense if they’re playing street fighting on YouTube.
They’re simply a bunch of garbage white folks attempting to communicate poorly with one another. However, since they are expected to be the best professional athletes, you don’t have to perform at such a low level if you think you are a talented enough athlete to win.
