UFC Middleweight Champion Dricus Du Plessis insists he's not to blame for how his main event in Australia this past Saturday unfolded.
Du Plessis ran it back with former titleholder Sean Strickland in the headlining act of UFC 312 inside Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena, with the pair renewing hostilities 13 months on from the South African unseating "Tarzan" in Canada.
After submitting Israel Adesanya in his first defense last August, "Stillknocks" was targeting a statement second time around against Strickland. And he succeeded in recording a much more definitive victory, smashing the polarizing American's nose en route to a lopsided decision.
While Du Plessis' dominant performance drew plaudits, the fight itself failed to impress, with the challenger's gun-shy approach leading to noticeable boos from the crowd.
That disappointed the champ, who told Full Send MMA that he never has any intention of putting on a "boring" fight. With that in mind, he hopes the fans were directing their displeasure at Strickland.
I don’t put on boring fights. I don’t have the ability because I don’t know how to fight like that. When I heard the boos, in my mind they are 100 percent towards him. And if it was towards me, you are stupid, anyone who booed," Du Plessis said. "I went forward the whole time. At the stage when I heard the boos, it drove me crazy. I was like, 'Come on, dude. Fight me!' The first and second round, I was piecing him up. In that third round, he was kind of just evading.
I got super frustrated because people pay a lot of money to be here and I wanna give the fans a show," Du Plessis continued. "That irritated me. That makes me crazy. I’ll have to rewatch it. If it was boring, I’m really sorry, that’s not my fault. I went forward. I wanted to fight. I know there was times where it wasn’t a war, but it’s not my fault. I went forward and I wanted to fight.
Du Plessis is certainly not known for lackluster displays inside the cage, having gone the distance just three times in professional MMA fights and finished the likes of Robert Whittaker and Adesanya.
Strickland, on the other hand, has been repeatedly criticized for promising wars during fight weeks but failing to deliver fireworks once the cage door closes behind him.