Sayif Saud, head coach at Fortis MMA, anticipates an all-out war between Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland in their UFC 312 rematch this Saturday.
The two middleweights will run it back less than a year after their closely contested fight at UFC 297, where Du Plessis captured the middleweight title by split decision. Their first encounter was action-packed, with both fighters believing they had done enough to win.
Now, they meet again in Sydney, with Strickland blaming his previous loss on an alleged illegal headbutt and questionable judging. Meanwhile, Du Plessis sees no controversy and aims for a decisive victory to silence any doubts.
“Sean Strickland is not a f*cking game,” Saud told MMA Junkie. “Sean Strickland is a guy that I think builds confidence with experience. He has experience in there with Dricus, going at Dricus. People are kind of counting him out a little bit more in this fight, saying, ‘Well, Dricus is going to finish, Dricus is getting better and better.’ That might be the case, but I still see this as a very close fight. I just think with the experience that Sean Strickland has, mentally, I feel like he’ll be more prepared. But again, the champion is 30 percent better every time.
“You become the champion, you’re literally 30 percent better. The confidence that comes with that. Dricus is a f*cking beast. He knows it doesn’t look great, but he don’t care. His whole thing is, ‘I’m going to out-will you.’ And that’s powerful, man. Fighting is about will, and he out-wills people. He really, really does. But that ain’t going to be easy to go do against Sean Strickland, because Sean Strickland is a five-round fighter.”
Saud believes Du Plessis will be ready if Strickland comes out aggressively looking for a finish. Because of this, he dismisses any predictions of a dull fight, expecting an even more intense battle than their first encounter.
“I think we’re going to see what we saw (in the first fight), but a little more aggressive version of that,” Saud said. “I think they’re going to add on a bit, they’re going to study the tape, and they’re going to come up with some more stuff. But Dricus’ coach is really, really good at game planning. This is going to be a real chess match between these two, and it’s going to be violent.”
