UFC 296: Sean Strickland attacks Dricus Du Plessis in the middle of shocked Vegas crowd - 'Out of his mind'

Sean Strickland was labelled a “psychopath” and “out of his mind” after launching a shocking attack on Dricus Du Plessis in the middle of the crowd and in front of children at UFC 296.

The middleweight champion will face South African Du Plessis at UFC 297 on January 20, 2024, but the pair were seated close together at the Las Vegas event on Saturday night.

All hell broke loose when Strickland, standing two rows in front of Du Plessis, came on camera and turned to fire an "air gun" towards his rival.

Du Plessis appeared to say something before Strickland asked a child sitting between them to move and threw himself across seats to start throwing punches at his UFC rival before the pair were pulled apart.

The incident left TNT Sports Box Office pundits Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan shocked as they criticised the 32-year-old American for his wild behaviour.

“You can see Dric is behind him still kind of talking once Sean turned his back, so I don’t know if maybe Sean Strickland heard him,” said Cormier.

“But how about Sean Strickland - who is a psychopath - having the wherewithal to tell the kids to move, before he goes and attacks Dricus Du Plessis.”

Rogan added: “It’s just so ridiculous that the middleweight champion of the world would do that. He’s out of his mind, he really is nuts.

“He’s getting off on it, he enjoys it, he’s having a good time. But don’t do that.”

Du Plessis responded to the incident on social media by making a bold claim about his upcoming fight with Strickland early next year.

“Now I understand why you have a 33% finish rate, you hit like a girl,” he wrote.

“Also 20 January the security won’t be there to save your life when I’m on top.”

Meanwhile, Leon Edwards defeated Colby Covington by unanimous decision in the main event at UFC 296, following earlier wins for Paddy Pimblett and Alexandre Pantoja.

After the incident, Strickland took to social media to point out comments about child abuse made by Du Plessis in a pre-fight press conference.

But Du Plessis said in an interview that the American’s reaction showed “how easy” it will be to “mentally break” Strickland when they face off in January.

“It’s probably not a good example, but here we are. Things happen and nobody got hurt, all is good,” Du Plessis said.

“I don’t really care how he feels, I don’t care about him being triggered. He goes and says whatever he wants and now there’s one thing that’s a soft spot for him and we’re not allowed to say it?

“If you want to dish it out you have to be able to take it. But the fact that he’s triggered? I don’t give a damn about that.”

Asked if the incident will add more fuel to the fire ahead of their meeting in Toronto, he added: “For me not at all. He needs to get calm in his head and regain his composure.

"I’m not the champ yet, so I shouldn’t really be giving the champ advice, but that would be my advice.

“Gain your composure, be calm. You make mistakes when you’re not calm and I’m cool as a cucumber, feeling absolutely great.

“The fact that he’s triggered only plays to my advantage. I can’t believe how easy it was to mentally trigger him.

“Sean Strickland is just bashing everybody, ranting about everybody and one little sentence and the man loses his mind. Shows how easy mentally he’ll be broken.”

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